24.3.13
Leveson and Blogs: Act now!
Anyone living in the UK will be aware of the active debate over Leveson and freedom of the press, but few will be aware of the alarming way in which this applies to blogs and web publishing. The Open Rights Group is on the case:
Lord Leveson’s regulations are being applied to UK websites – in ways that could catch more or less anyone who publishes a blog. Ordinary bloggers could be threatened with exemplary damages and costs. If this happens, small website publishers will face terrible risks, or burdensome regulation – and many may simply stop publishing.Open Rights Group has a web page that will let you express your opinion to the relevant parties in less than a minute it. Do it now!
We have until Monday to stop this happening.Lord Leveson said he wanted to regulate print media. He proposed that judges be allowed to award exemplary damages and full costs against unregulated publishers. These are stringent and controversial measures, but he only envisaged them applying to large and powerful publishers. Not websites, unless they belonged to print publishers.
Last weekend, the proposals were agreed in a rush, without public consultation, and with no attention to the detail.
Outrageously, they have given the Lords until Monday to fix their mistakes.The result is that they apply to any size of web publisher – if there’s more than one author, the content is edited and there’s a business involved, then you must join a self regulator.
Most blogs like this aren’t powerful publishing houses. Even ORGZine would need to be regulated, or face punitive measures if it ended up in court.
The threat of websites being regulated like this was never the purpose of Lord Leveson’s recommendations. Websites weren’t involved in phone hacking. There is no evidence that they need to be forced into self-regulation like this.
We need you to email Nick Clegg, Harriet Harman, and David Cameron to ask them to back off and leave the Internet out of Leveson.
14.3.13
The Antikythera Mechanism in Lego
Lego can simulate the past and predict the future. The video is superbly presented, as much of an achievement as the recreation itself.
Labels: Lego, Mathematics
Boxer
At Lambda the Ultimate, Sean McDirmid points to the intriguing paper Twenty Reasons You Should User Boxer (Instead of Logo), by Andrea di Sessa (co-author of Turtle Geometry). What happened to Boxer? Is it available to try out? The Boxer website appears inactive, and only lists a Macintosh version. How hard is it to simulate a Mac on current hardware?
Labels: Programming Languages
Ineffective Sorts
13.3.13
Organising Everyday Disarray
Arthur responded to a previous comment by pointing me to an article on the remarkable work of Ursus Wehrli.
Labels: Graphics
Ellsberg salutes Manning
Labels: Politics
Things Organised Neatly
Labels: Graphics
12.3.13
Informatics 1: Functional Programming
Labels: Haskell, Programming Languages
9.3.13
Newtown vs. Drones
From June 2004 through mid-September 2012, available data indicate that drone strikes killed 2,562–3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom 474–881 were civilians, including 176 children. — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Labels: Politics
Mustard Watches
Labels: Programming Languages, Theory
8.3.13
Siteswap
Labels: Programming Languages
Planet Haskell
4.3.13
Pillar of Cloud three months on - The Infographic
From Al Jazeera.
Three months after the last major Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, the "period of calm" is only "calm" for Israel.
2.3.13
The IP of PI
Into the Continuum
A tumblr of amazing images, all created via Mathematica.
Mathematica code:Rot80 = Table[ Table[ RotationTransform[a, {1, 1, 0}, {0, 0, 0}][Tuples[{-1, 1}, 3][[v]]], {v, 1, 8, 1}], {a, 0, 2 Pi, Pi/80}] Edge := {1, 2, 4, 3, 7, 8, 6, 5, 1, 3, 4, 8, 7, 5, 6, 2} CubeTrail[h_, op_, N_, s_, r_, z_, t_, PR_, IS_, C_] := Graphics[ Table[ Scale[ Translate[ {AbsoluteThickness[h], Opacity[op], If[C == 1, Black, White], Line[ Table[ {Rot80[[1 + Mod[t, 80]]][[Edge[[e]]]][[1]], Rot80[[1 + Mod[t, 80]]][[Edge[[e]]]][[2]]}, {e, 1, 16, 1}]]}, r{Cos[2 Pi*(n*t/80 + k)/N], Sin[2 Pi*(n*t/80 + k)/N]}], z^n, r{Cos[2 Pi*(n*t/80 + k)/N], Sin[2 Pi*(n*t/80 + k)/N]}], {k, 1, N, 1}, {n, 1, s, 1}], PlotRange -> PR, ImageSize -> 500, Background -> If[C == 0, Black, White]] Manipulate[P = {h, op, N, s, r, z, t, PR, IS, C}; CubeTrail[h, op, N, s, r, z, t, PR, 500, 0], {{h, 1}, 0, 20}, {op, 1, 0}, {{N, 4}, 1, 16, 1}, {s, 1, 100, 1}, {{r, 3.5}, 0, 10}, {z, 1, 0}, {{PR, 5}, 1, 5}, {C, 0, 1, 1}, {t, 0, 100, 1}] P ={1.5, 1, 4, 8, 3.8, 0.75, 0, 5, 500, 0} Manipulate[ CubeTrail[P[[1]],P[[2]],P[[3]],P[[4]],P[[5]],P[[6]],t,P[[8]],500,0], {t, 1, 80, 1}]
