Brooders.net

I downloaded my fair share of textfiles during the 90s using a 1200 baud (yup .. 120 Characters per second) from many a BBS within the cost of a local phone call.

So Warren Ellis pointed out Preterhuman.net. 106 gig of textfiles on a wide variety of topics. I can’t help myself, you never know when text files of HAM Radio will come in handy. So .. again, I’ll probably go download a whole lot more textfiles. I did find a copy of “Ludwig Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” which is supposed key philosophy text, but it’s in spanish. I’m not sure my Beer and room ordering Spanish capabilities will get me through such a mind bending text.

I am a sucker for computer culture things (read: 80s and 90s cyberpunk commentaries on society and our bleak future). So obviously, the Computer Culture section is always of interest.

If you do like this style thing, check out Textfiles.com .. it same, same, but different .. and it has green on black colour scheme to remind me of the good ol’ days.

( Via Warren Ellis “Preterhuman.net” )

Ask yourself: With which instrument do you cause more greenhouse-gas emissions: your car key or your fork? ( Via Driving Us to Vegetarianism )

I subscribe to the Sentient Developments feed, and have recently been thinking about his comments regarding vegetarianism.

Check out:

• Lancet: Eat less meat to combat global warming
• David Roberts on vegetarianism and environmentalism

as much as 22% of greenhouse emissions are from agriculture

Kind of hard to believe (who can you believe nowadays anyway .. everyone has an agenda of some sort).

George has highlighted his thoughts on meat eaters ( Meat Eaters are bad people ). It’s an interesting viewpoint, not sure where I sit. I guess some of depends in how much you believe the food chain things is real or not. If you believe that people are animals and animals eat meat .. well you can probably scratch that off. I personally think that people eat too much meat, because it’s cheap and you can. There are other options for eating .. nowadays price control doesn’t exist (e.g. 100 years ago .. meat was probably really expensive).

I think there is some merit to the emissions argument. I guess that keeping, feeding, preparing, processing and transport all take their environmental toll. However, I think a reduction is more realistic option for me. One of the articles mentions a cutback of 10% to provide a reduction in emissions. The problem, people will see a lot of other issues, power, transport, industry, before this one.

So maybe we’ll end up eating meat flavoured sludge at some point in an effort to reduce emissions.

I get a fair few Google referrals searching for “Brooders”.

When I first registered this site, I was thinking about “Brooding” as a mental activity. However a Brooder, according to Wikipedia, is also a term for Incubator or “NeoNatal Intensive Care unit”. This wikipedia article relates to human babies, and is not what you find on Google. Searching for Brooders on Google yields results about Chicken or Bird brooders or incubators.

These sites have lots of talk of Ambient Temperature, Poultry Management and other Fun things.

There are pictures of what looks like boxes or cages with heat lamps.

So there is a little mix up out there in reality, where brooders means something else (i.e. Infant incubation !)

What I was actually thinking of was …

If you are coming in from Google, Sorry about that, Click here to really search for brooders !

Last time we noticed it Traffic Wardens with headmounted Cameras.

Now this time it’s actually the police.

The article Britain to arm bobbies with helmet cams goes into detail:

LONDON — Britain is taking its surveillance to a new level, strapping video cameras to the helmets of its famed bobbies — a move the government says will cut down on paperwork and help prosecute criminals. By providing dramatic footage of victims, suspects and witnesses, judges and jurors will be able to “see and hear the incident through the eyes and ears of the officer at the scene,” Minister of State for Security Tony McNulty said.

I guess this raises similiar questions to the traffic wardens:

1. Will this change the bevahiour of the officers for the better? They know are being watched.
2. In the case of more people’s “word” against the police .. would this video be the ultimate truth ?
3. Would there be an over-reliance on video evidence
4. Who watches the watchers? - Does the public have the right to film the police in the same manner
5. Would a criminal who’d been caught on film resort to extreme violence to destroy the video filming gear and hurt the officer in the progress?

I am not sure the “always on” cop, knowing they’re recording in the public eye, is a good thing. What problem is it solving, reducing paperwork or collecting evidence? I wonder how many things could be taken out of context? Does a defendent have the right for the material to be played in full? Would it be allowed to be edited?

( Via Oreillynet - UK Rolls Out Police Headcams )