buggery.org

• Eight things you didn't know about the internet - New Scientist
  What forces are shaping it, how big has it grown, and will it ever evolve a mind of its own? To find out, New Scientist posed eight simple questions.
  (tags: internet ai icann co2-emissions environment climate-change)

• Flickr users make accidental maps - New Scientist
  David Crandall and colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, analysed the data attached to 35 million photographs uploaded to the Flickr website to create accurate global and city maps and identify popular snapping sites.
  (tags: flickr internet geotagging geoweb)

Governments around the world - including Australia’s - are implementing new border protection measures to protect their populations from swine flu.

Here’s my simple recommendation for Australia:

1. Immediately ban all incoming travellers who arrive by air, no matter who they are or where they come from. Planes are notorious incubators of viral respiratory illnesses.

2. The only legal method for entering Australia will thus be by sea, with arrivals in leaky Indonesian fishing boats earning extra points for effort. (Those coming by faster boats will henceforth be referred to as “queue jumpers”.)

3. Obviously, the long sea journey will ensure any arrivals who make it into Australian waters are H1N1 free.

4. Problem solved!

• Super-fast trip to a world full of surprises (Mark Pesce/SMH)
  Now the Government has decided it won the tender for a next-generation broadband network, Australians are wondering what to expect over the next eight years.
  (tags: broadband internet mpesce future)