Link: Mobile Data Usage Explodes | wifitalk.ca
“Cisco has released a whitepaper on mobile data usage which has some interesting data in it. The top 1% of users consume 20% of the bandwidth, but that share is down from 30% previously. ‘Regular’ users are catching up as they watch more video. High-bandwidth users of today will be relatively average users by 2015, so network operators should look to those users for insight in designing their future networks.”
Link: Piracy is the Future of TV: commercial TV sucks relative to illicit services – Boing Boing
“Piracy is the Future of Television” is Abigail De Kosnik’s Convergence Culture Consortium paper on the many ways in which piracy is preferable to buying legitimate online TV options. None of these advantages are related to price — it may be hard to compete with free, but it’s impossible to compete with free when you offer something worse than the free option. De Kosnik finishes the paper with a series of incredibly sensible recommendations for producing a commercial marketplace that’s as good or better than the illicit one. Alas, I fear that TV broadcasters would rather demand special online censorship powers and moan about piracy than fix their products
Link: Restyled AT-ATs
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.bite.ca/bitedaily/2011/01/restyled-at-ats/"><img src="https://mostlyrealstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/ScoobyDooATAT-580x580.jpg" height="580" width="580" /></a>
Link: Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail? | Rolling Stone Politics
<img src="https://mostlyrealstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/main.jpg" height="306" width="225" />
Financial crooks brought down the world’s economy — but the feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them
Link: Data intelligence firms proposed a systematic attack against WikiLeaks
After a tip from Crowdleaks.org, The Tech Herald has learned that HBGary Federal, as well as two other data intelligence firms, worked to develop a strategic plan of attack against WikiLeaks. The plan included pressing a journalist in order to disrupt his support of the organization, cyber attacks, disinformation, and other potential proactive tactics.
Link: Weight of the world: Change in the world’s BMI since 1980 | The Washington Post
With a few exceptions, the average body mass index in most countries has risen since 1980, according to a project that tracked risk factors for heart disease and stroke in 199 countries over 28 years.
Link: Creepy Russian Children’s Playgrounds
<a target="_blank" href="http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/12/16/creepy-childrens-playgrounds/#more-29864"><img src="https://mostlyrealstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/playground-14.jpg" height="843" width="500" /></a>
Surface detail (by subBlue)
Three minutes and ten seconds of beautiful fractals. Highly hypnotic!
In the year 2000, PM asked how eight of the most profound questions in science might (optimistically) be answered before the dawn of the 22nd century. So where are we now, a decade later? Here’s the skinny on some of science’s greatest mysteries—from attaining immortality and the search for alien life to traveling through time.
Link: The Companies Who Support Censoring The Internet | Techdirt
A group of companies sent a letter to to Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE boss John Morton today (with cc’s to VP Joe Biden, Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano, IP Czar Victoria Espinel, Rep. Lamar Smith, Rep. John Conyers, Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Charles Grassley), supporting the continued seizure of domain names they don’t like, as well as the new COICA censorship bill, despite the serious Constitutional questions raised about how such seizures violate due process and free speech principles.
