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• BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | First flight of algae-fuelled jet
  Now we just need algae-powered segways...
• Apple announces all music on iTunes to go DRM-free -- no word on movies, TV shows, games, audiobooks and applications | DefectiveByDesign.org

• Welcome To Otakon
  I have to go.
• OpenID Explained
  Simple explanation of it.

• Why Wikipedia Must Jettison Its Anti-Elitism || kuro5hin.org

• ThinkGeek :: Badge Holders
• Pelosi Reverses House Fairness Rules - HUMAN EVENTS
  Interesting.
• Long URL Please | Lengthening short urls so that you don't have to

• Numbers everyone should know « Handwaving
• No More Road Socialism - Doug French - Mises Institute
  Interesting article on road socialism and private ownership of roads and motorways.
• Canadian Museum of Civilization (Musee Canadien des Civilisations ) - Gatineau - Reviews of Canadian Museum of Civilization (Musee Canadien des Civilisations ) - TripAdvisor
• Hôtel de Glace
  It's a friggin ice hotel!

• MAKE: Blog: Hack the Pleo robotic dinosaur new dev forum and scripting ...

• Breitling Watches for Pilots
  Awesome expensive watches.

• Set-up a Ubuntu webcam security system « InfectedProject

• Genetic Programming: Evolution of Mona Lisa « Roger Alsing Weblog

• groff_char(7)
  Extremely helpful for making manpages!

I “dare” to say so. This is a great article. My favorite part:

“Diarrhea kills five times as many kids as AIDS,” said John Oldfield, executive vice president of Water Advocates, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes clean water and sanitation.

“Everybody talks about AIDS at cocktail parties,” Oldfield said. “But nobody wants to hear about diarrhea,” he said.

This is interesting too:

“There needs to be a rational system for how to apportion scarce funds,” said Helen Epstein, an AIDS expert who has consulted for UNICEF, the World Bank, and others.

Maybe we should allocate them per country or per region such that the amount of money for a given epidemic or other health concern is proportional to the need (now I’m starting to sounds like a communist, but bear with me) for that treatment. Now, of course there will be issues with estimating how much of each treatment a country might need in the coming year, especially first aid materials, but for most illnesses (see AIDS and malaria) we can probably safely use this year’s statistics to estimate the amount of treatment that needs to be available next year. Therefore, the various charitable organizations that accept donations for healthcare, as well as the World Bank, should accept money with a policy that it will be used as efficiently as possible rather than promising to use the money for AIDS, cancer, etc.

The problem with this is it doesn’t sound like you’re addressing a particular problem when you do it, so you can’t use it to prop up your ego. If one were to lose a loved one to cancer and he/she wanted to donate to a cancer fund, the only ones available would be the general healthcare funds and specific cancer research organizations. Another problem is that it wouldn’t make any difference to reform the policies of the organizations, because they could just split up into multiple entities (cancer, AIDS, malaria), and the money would be mis-allocated in the same fashion. The only real way is to outlaw receiving or donating funds for specific types of healthcare, which is completely insane.

So, do we make it cool to donate to diarrhea? That doesn’t seem possible to me. Perhaps in cases of foreign aid, we should only allow general donations because of this resource mis-allocation problem.

So, I finally did it. I took a plane off the ground and returned it by myself three times today (and did one go-around). It was a really great feeling. As is the tradition, the back of my shirt was cut off, inscribed with some commemorative writing by my instructor, and hung on the wall for all to see. I also talked a bit with one of the other HAMs at the flight club about his rigs and a few things the historical radio society does here. Now, I just have to get as many flights in as possible before my instructor becomes a father.

It’s a sad day in Erik-land. Stolen items were limited to JVC HDR1 receiver ($120), Hifonics Brutus 1000W Amplifier ($200), 20GB 4th Generation iPod ($60), and, the really sad part, an out of production Adire Audio 12” Brahma Subwoofer ($400). Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to beat the market to death and get the money back.

• EtherPad: Realtime Collaborative Text Editing
• Gmail Backup | Safer is better
  Great tool for backing up gmail!
• How to Link Multiple GMail Accounts Together in 4 Easy Steps | MakeUseOf.com
  This works - I do it currently.
• Welcome to KBQ Real Barbecue in Bowie, Maryland
  Wayne recommended this one.
• Baugher's
  Seems like it might have some good produce.
• Avemco Insurance Company - General Aviation Aircraft & Pilot Insurance Policies

Today, I was reading a story about Jewish Nazis Jailed in Israel and disturbingly, I found out the number in the 92 Code for Love and Kisses, which is the number 88, happens to be a popular white-supremacist symbol. In fact, they both have major sections on the Wikipedia Page for 88. I guess you have to put it into context somehow on the air…