Bad science: it is bad enough that Merck was slow to admit publicly that their arthritis drug Vioxx was increasing the chance of heart attacks and strokes. It was stunning that they choose to suppress internal research which said that would happen. Now it appears that they (or the researchers hired by Merck) actively engaged in scientific malfeasance: Medical Journal Says Merck Concealed Vioxx Data and Merck deleted Vioxx safety info: Journal. Predictably this plays right into the hands of those suing Merck over the deaths of loved ones who took Vioxx: Call for Vioxx mistrial filed: report.
DRM drumbeat: last month I quoted Bruce Schneier's Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit, he was aghast that the anti-virus companies had failed to detect the Sony BMG virus attack, and then were incredibly slow to react. Technology Review blames the inaction on the unintended consequences of the DMCA: The Root of the Problem ("Sony BMG's disastrous use of rootkit software has taught us a valuable lesson: we're too trusting of commercial software") (via). Thickening of the Sony BMG plot: Sony rootkit ripped off anti-DRM code to break into iTunes. Musician: DRM screws my fans, so it screws me is Cory's pithy summary of Damien Kulash's NYT editorial: Buy, Play, Trade, Repeat. MPEG-21: Finding a balance between digital copyright and consumers' rights. RealNetworks' Rob Glaser rants about Steve Jobs and iPod: Apple slammed for piracy-fuelling iPod.
Synthetic biology: from designer diatoms to Nature gives a lesson in armor design. Synthetic biology was also mentioned in Salon's The Big Idea, about my former coworker Tom Knight's BioBricks.
A new mammal?! Red, Catlike Animal May Be a New Species, photo here: New Mammal Discovered in Borneo?. OK a new species of mammal is big news. But apparently finding new species on Borneo is old hat, incredibly: Three New Species Found in Borneo Forests Each Month.
Technobits: these two Reuters headlines appeared next to each other one day, they aren't exactly contradictory, but close: Fears over identity theft overblown: US study and Study says 1 in 4 targets of e-mail phishing scams ---sour grapes: World's poorest don't want '$100 laptop': Intel --- Alarm over dramatic weakening of Gulf Stream --- Freakonomics to Oops-onomics --- more on video on demand: as discussed here previously, video on demand has suddenly become hot: NBC teams up with iTunes (press release). --- Court blocks Illinois video game sales regulation --- flexible displays getting real: see this large image of a display from Plastic Logic (via) --- Cory Doctorow on field programmable gate arrays: Flights of Fancy on Flexible Chips --- A search for the best desk chair: Sit Happens --- another journey through the Uncanny Valley: Monsters of Photorealism ("...And those eyes! My god, they're like two portholes into a soulless howling electric universe...") --- very cool flash games: Orisinal : Morning Sunshine (try Bugs in the upper left corner) --- as a long time Googler (ever since it was google.stanford.edu) I feel compelled to point out that Google users wealthier, more Net savvy.
