if i only knew...

Climate change, society and the media

An interesting article in The New York Times summarizing the books coming out this summer about climate change, it's social causes, and the like: Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

Especially interesting is this paragraph from one of the quoted books:
"Why have Americans refused to face up to the evidence of global warming? The answers are both political and economic. But Ross Gelbspan, a former Boston Globe reporter and editor, makes the case that the news media are also guilty. In Boiling Point (Basic Books, $22, to be published in August), he argues that on matters of scientific fact, journalists employ an essentially unfair idea of 'balance' -- treating global warming as though it were still a matter of open conjecture, with equal weight on both sides. As a result, the story of global warming as reported in the American press largely reflects the political manipulation of the story, not the science. Accurate coverage, Gelbspan writes, 'would have reflected the position of mainstream scientists in 95 percent of the story -- with the skeptics getting a paragraph at the end.' "

Bizarre story

Boy used chat room to get himself killed
This is easily the most bizarre story i have read for a few years... in Britain a 15-year-old boy (John) played a pretty scary mind game with a friend of his (who he fell in love with, called Mark) through Internet chat. He introduced himself as a teenage girl, then invented fictious secret agents, who instructed poor Mark to kill John "promising him a gun, a large sum of money and a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a reward". Mark than actually stabbed him and nearly succeeded in killing him, but he got scared and called the police. They lied to the police, but then the chat logs were found and the whole story discovered.

" Some of his inspiration came from James Bond films and the science-fiction blockbuster Men In Black."

"Mark admitted attempted murder and was given a two-year supervision order. The boys were also banned from contacting each other. John was ordered to use the internet only under supervision and told that he must never go into a chat room again."

Classical in a castle

Yesterday we went to a really cool classical concert in Vienna. (Sidenote: the last time i went to a classical concert was at least 5 years ago, Giora Feidman in the Budapest Synagogue). This time it was a special open air concert in the Schloss Schonbrunn in Vienna, a magically beautiful backdrop for a concert stage. Bobby McFerrin conducted the Wiener Philharmoniker orchestra, they played popular pieces like Strauss (we are in Vienna after all...) and Bolero. It was great fun.Also, a big thanks to the organizers for the perfect sound, and the well-done logistics of moving the 90 000 people out of the castle park without any problems.

Origami VW New Beetle

Calling all origami masters: if you can fold me a copy of this, let me know. I am sure we can figure out a deal...

Takeout menu organizer DIY

Yet another item on the do-it-myself-instead-of-paying-$30-to-buy list:
Takeout menu organizer

Standards compliant design 101

I have played around with CSS, but so far, even though i built entire sites with CSS layouts i haven't learned the nuts and bolts of it and i didn't really bother learning even the fundamental rules.

Today, after reading A Roadmap to Standards, i feel so much more motivated to stop hacking my way through and actually learn to do it right, standards compliant and responsibly. Just in time for the beginning of a new project i took on (more about that later)...

Also, through the comments to the above article, i found agreat CSS layout tool: layoutomatic I wish i knew about it before i tackled my first three column layout built from scratch using CSS (not this blog layout, another site).