How do you compare security across voting systems?
It’s a curious problem: how do you compare two completely unrelated voting systems and say that one is more or less secure than the other?  How can you meaningfully compare the security of paper…

How to solve crossword puzzles

NY Times resident crossword puzzle master Will Shortz on how to solve the NY Times crossword puzzle.

Mental flexibility is a great asset in solving crosswords. Let your mind wander. The clue…

Sexual Harassment Required for Survival of Human Race
Update: See Natalia Antonova’s entry for more information. The article below is not entirely accurate (and I admit I didn’t catch the “100% of women are sexually harassed” line. Per Natalia’s…

8-bit Showdowns

Psychologists Clash on Aiding Interrogations
A professional organization for psychologists is debating whether to make any involvement in military interrogations a violation of its code of ethics.

The Real Veepstakes

Like everyone else in DC, I’m pondering the so-called “Veepstakes” — Evan Bayh? Joe Biden? Jack Reed? Sebelius? — except unlike a lot of people I’m having a hard time developing really strong…

Usniff
smooth torrent searching in the vein of YouTorrent

I Blame the Porno-iarchy
Caroline at Un-Cool and Trinity at The Strangest Alchemy have both posted about some comments that Maggie Hayes has made about the agency of sex workers.
I wish I’d actually talked about this in my…

Doubts On Yahoo's Human Rights Code of Conduct
Ian Lamont writes “The US Senate has been pushing American technology companies to work with rights groups to develop a human rights code of conduct, which would help to guide their overseas…

Ice Sculptures of Melting Men by Nele Azevedo
Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo’s artwork is cool … literally! In this art installation, Nele created hundreds of sitting figures out of ice - the installation lasted till the last one melted in the…

Premiere/Diebold: You're Doing It Wrong
Earlier this week, we wrote about Ohio’s lawsuit against Premiere Elections Systems — better known by its previous name, Diebold — where we noted Premiere’s claim that the problems were the fault…

McCain Releases Technology Platform
I Don’t Believe in Imaginary Property writes “John McCain has finally released a technology platform. Most of it is the same old stuff; lower corporate taxes, protect children from porn, and avoid…

Internet Radio's "Last Stand"
We’ve been discussing the plight of Internet radio for some time, as the Copyright Royalty Board imposed royalties that industry observers predicted would prove lethal to the nascent industry. We…

Political Ephemera from the Vietnam War Era
The University of Washington has put a collection of Vietnam War era printed ephemera (posters, flyers, pamphlets, magazines, mostly cheap mimeographs or photocopies) online. The browsable…

Slow Motion Genocide

Richard Just has a long and fairly nuanced piece on Darfur:

No genocide has ever been so thoroughly documented while it was taking place. There were certainly no independent film-makers in…