NewsGator, the news aggregator extension to Outlook has been released. I played around with the pre-release version and despite the occaisional crash, it's definitely worth having a look at. Products like this will speed up the adoption of RSS as a mainstream communication channel. Why get tangled up in other peoples' webs if you can slurp their content (or at least the headlines) into your email?
Brian Eno wrote this letter to TIME magazine on "A European View". It is not likely to appear in print.
Over Christmas back in Aus, I devoured two books that completely changed the way I think about the notion of wilderness and nature. 'Feral Futures' and 'The New Nature: Winners and Losers in Wild Australia' by Tim Low.
'Feral Futures' is all about the biological invasion of Australia, presented in stark and quite alarming terms. 'The New Nature' challenges the premise that nature is where we are not. Using case studies from around Sydney, Low describes how surburbia is becoming a haven for exotic species and surrounding bushland increasingly deserted.
There is controversial material in both books, such as the observation that, for some species, politics will always come before conservation (e.g. cuddly koalas). I was sold on the argument that human development enables certain species to usurp others in an ever-changing balance of power. It was obvious enough looking out the window of my parents' place. In the two year since I'd been in Sydney, new species of birds had taken pride of place in bushy Fox Valley. Ring-tailed possums were more plentiful then ever. Never having been one for weeding, 'The New Nature' also left me feeling like I'll never be able to plant anything ever for fear of the consequences. The "riddle of nature" Low describes is an absolute minefield of issues, even for a cityslicker like me.
If recent events in London are an indication of what's to come, Trafalgar Square will be a place for motorists to avoid in the event of war.
The Environmental Justice Foundation have released a report, SQUANDERING THE SEAS, looking at the impact of shrimp trawling globally. The call to consumers and retailers is to "only purchase shrimp proven to be from ecologically sustainable, economically viable and socially equitable shrimp fisheries." Certifying these bottom feeders is going to be tricky.
US think tank, the Lexington Institute has just published a paper on Directed-Energy Weapons: Technologies, Applications and Implications. Airborne, ground and space-based lasers are well on their way. Now if only they had someone to aim them at...
Yesterday's demonstration in central London organised by the Stop the War Coalition was both exceptionally large (over 1 million people) and exceptionally diverse. Many of the people who came out in the cold were on their first ever protest. There was a surprising amount of flesh on show, considering the temperature. Don't the english just love getting their kit off!
These three made their point crystal clear. Kiss mine too.