Clumsy US Spamming, Er, Spy Operation The US government revealed that they’re dumping more money into anti-terrorist social media propaganda machines that can already be measured at a bloated $200 million. Jeff Jarvis said they look like “clumsy spammers,”
“But the effort is amusing as well, for there is absolutely no need to spend millions of dollars to create fake identities online. Any child or troll can do it for free. Millions do.”
Indeed. What’s most ironic, however, is that while it would be “unlawful to ‘address US audiences’ with such technology,” it’s perfectly acceptable to commit such crimes against foreign people.
Posturing for Peace in Libya Shortly after AP reported that Libya has declared a cease-fire, AP reported that the four missing New York Times journalists have been found. Coincidence? Likely not.
The UN may have strong-armed Libya out of the path of destruction by declaring a no-fly zone and mobilizing international military forces, but that doesn’t mean this conflict is over. There are many questions still unanswered: Will they honor the cease-fire? What will the rebel forces (aka protesters, aka opposition movement) demand next? Will Gadhafi share the fate of Mubarak? Whatever happens, we should ‘proceed cautiously’
‘ “so we don’t get into the kind of situation that we got into in Iraq by not having a Plan B for the morning after.” ‘
Appropriate advice from retired General of the British army, Richard Dannatt.
UPDATE 3/19: To answer at least one of the previous questions: Gadhafi calls UN resolution ‘invalid’, forces attack heart of rebel territory.
Nuclear Disaster at Fukushima: Too Little Too Late? Can Crowdsourcing Help Japan’s Nuclear Disaster? Perhaps. But it may already be too late. The Telegraph reported yesterday (with video) that they were trying to dump water on the overheated plant in a last ditch effort to cool it off. They also said that early warnings were “insufficient and understated,” and the worst case scenario could be in the “same range” as Chernobyl.
Not even crowdsourcing can outsmart a deadline.
Owsley Stanley (1935-2011) 
Owsley Stanley, famed chemist that produced high-grade Acid for rock stars in the 60′s, was not only that: he was also a professional dancer, sound engineer, broadcast engineer, financial backer of the Grateful Dead, co-designer of the iconic Grateful Dead logo, metal- and jewelry-maker, ex-con, and emigrant to Australia. The man died on Sunday in a car accident in Queensland, but the legend lives on. (Complete obituary from the NYT.)
Julian Assange: the Web is a Spying Machine The Guardian reports on a speech Assange gave at Cambridge:
“The internet is the ‘greatest spying machine the world has ever seen’ and is not a technology that necessarily favours the freedom of speech, the WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, has claimed in a rare public appearance.”
He also mentions the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia and Manning’s arrest by the US government.
Understanding Wisconsin in Hindsight of Protests Defending Governor Scott Walker’s proposed anti-union reforms, one Time article claims, “The system is set up to allow the unions’ political barons to easily skim big money from dues with very little member involvement.”
Another says that although the protesters lost this battle, they aren’t giving up on the war against Walker: “Their anger will likely also provide momentum for recall petitions.”
And according to reports from BoingBoing.net, it petitions to sack walker are gaining momentum. “In other words, Dems are reporting they are nearly halfway to the finish line, with roughly three-fourths of the alloted time remaining.”
Riding the Wave Some good news in a whole pile of bad:
“The massive tsunami destroyed most of the neighborhood in Sendai where Kikushi Kayo and her father live. But somehow their two dogs, Toya and Melody, survived.” (WSJ)
Radiation: Dose and Risk Some real talk from BoingBoing.net about radiation exposure and the risk of developing cancer that humans being who are exposed face. I’m sure there’s more to come, but this short post tells us one thing: a years worth of exposure may only increase your risk by “.5 – 1%”. Not insignificant, but you won’t storm away like a raging Akira either.
The Power of Naps Napping before you learn can boost your ability to keep and recall memories. This study found that sleep spindles, or bursts of electrical activity in your brain during NREM (Non-REM) sleep, helped those that napped before their test perform better than those who didn’t nap; better even than those who did nap but did not experience the so-called sleep spindles.
“Walker and his colleagues suspect that the sleep spindles are working to transfer information from the hippocampus, a small area deep in your brain where memories are made, to the prefrontal cortex, which serves as long-term storage. That frees up the hippocampus to make new memories, Walker said.”
The Lost City of Atlantis — Found? 
A team of researchers think they found the famed sunken city in central Spain, north of Cadiz.
There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.
They used digital mapping, deep-ground radar, and underwater technology to survey the site. There is a National Geographic special documenting their discovery that airs again on Tuesday.
One suggestion is that the city was overtaken by a massive Tsunami that swept the area thousands of years ago. Given recent events, the idea is not only plausible, but eerily fitting.
