The Neuroscience of “Enhanced Interrogation”

Wired reports that studies show that "enhanced interrogation", far from being a reliable source of information, can actually make someone less of an intelligence asset because the stress involved changes the biochemistry of the brain:“There is a vast literature on the effects of extreme stress on motivation, mood and memory, using both animals and humans,” writes Shane O’Mara, a stress ...

They Don’t Make ‘em Like They Used To

The 1959 Chevy Bel Air, while not quite the iconic classic of its 1955-1957 forebears, is nonetheless a large, muscular vehicle from the Golden Age of the American automobile.  The 2009 Chevy Malibu, by contrast, is a wimpy, nondescript midsize sedan that provides basic transportation but not much more.   Which would you rather crash in?  Right you are: As Robert Farago ...

Google Sports Calendars

When checking my Google calendar this morning, I noticed a tab at the top highlighting "New: Sports Calendars."   Apparently, they actually rolled this out a couple weeks ago: Now, when you look under "Other Calendars," click "Add," then "Browse Interesting Calendars" (or use this link to the Calendar directory), you'll find calendars for hundreds of teams in dozens of sports ...

New York Times Malware Ads

This weekend, I got one of those fake "virus clean" popups after clicking a link to a New York Times article from Memeorandum.   Apparently, I wasn't alone as there are a dozen or more posts about it today at Techmeme. The NYT itself has this Note to Readers: Some NYTimes.com readers have seen a pop-up box warning them about a virus and ...

50 Things Killed by the Internet

Matthew Moore marks the 40th anniversary of the Internet with a list of "50 things that are being killed by the internet." My favorites: 1) The art of polite disagreement While the inane spats of YouTube commencers may not be representative, the internet has certainly sharpened the tone of debate. The most raucous sections of the ...

Google Patents Web Page Design

Google filed a patent five years ago for its home page design. Yesterday, it was approved. I'm with Valleywag's Ryan Tate: We always thought the page was brain-dead simple, but apparently it's an innovative "graphical user interface." [...] In other words, subject to how the patent is enforced, Google owns the idea of having a giant search box in the middle of the page, ...

RSS is Dead, Long Live RSS

A discussion that has been going on for a while among the tech bloggers and Twitterati is the idea that RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is dead. A study published last October found that 78% of U.S. online adults did not use it and only 19% of those who didn't had any interest in using it in the future.  Then again, as ...

Who’s Reading What

Matt Yglesias notes that bloggers and others who write for the Web lack a luxury of those who write for print: "nobody has any idea who’s reading them."  Whereas there are detailed metrics about pageviews on the Web, all print has to go on is circulation figures.  So they can blithely assume that their long features and hard news and ...

Forcing Pirates to Walk the Plank

The British government has devised a novel solution to dealing with online piracy: Disable the Internet accounts of violators. Broadband providers could be forced to suspend their customers’ accounts under proposals announced on Tuesday by the UK government to tackle internet file-sharing. The proposals mark a hardening of the government’s stance against piracy since the Digital Britain report was published in June, ...

Wikipedia People Articles Now Moderated

Wikipedia is implementing a new policy requiring that changes to articles about living people be approved by moderators before going live, essentially abandoning the wiki model. The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — ...

Google Chrome Bleg

I gave Google's Chrome browser a go the first few days after its debut but found it rather annoying and went back to Firefox.  The latter has gotten so balky of late, however, that I've followed Alex Knapp's suggestion and given Chrome another chance. For the most part, it's fine.  I'm not having the crashing issues that I was with Firefox ...

3 Ways to Avoid Drowing in Information

Steve Rubel offers "Three Tips for Managing the Stream Before it Manages You." Between email, blog feeds, Twitter, Facebook, and various other applications out there, we've all got too much information to contend with. Those of us in the information business are even more overwhelmed because we both need to follow more things and figure out ...

Google Opt Out Feature Protects Privacy

Pretty sure this is still in Beta: Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village via Hal Hildebrand

USAA iPhone Check Deposits

This is just awesome: The Internet has taken a lot of the paperwork out of banking, but there is no avoiding paper when someone gives you a check. Now one bank wants to let customers deposit checks immediately — through their phones. USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company, plans to update its iPhone application this week to introduce the check ...

Books in a Blog World

Norm Geras points us to LAT book editor David Ulin's essay lamenting the "lost art of reading," specifically the difficulty in concentrating well and long enough to read books.   Norm says it's easy:  "You get a book. You switch off various things. If it helps, you close the door. Then you sit down and read. In due course, our man ...