Internet Readalong

[effex]

* The big news: Hosni Mubarak has resigned as Egypt's president. Fuck yes, Egypt! If you haven't been following along at home, Al Jazeera has a timeline of events.

Don't stop paying attention to Africa and the Middle East - this'll have major impact on the protests in other countries.

* On Good.is: Americans Have No Idea How Much Welfare They're Getting. The rise of the anti-big government Tea Party movement in America has also seen a rise in the number of citizens publicly decrying both taxes and the social welfare programs for which those taxes provide. A recent study shows, however, that many Americans actually have no idea that they're on the dole, calling into question the validity of their attacks on government handouts.

* On BoingBoing: StartingPage now returns Google search results, privately. Google and other search engines track what users search; over time, the data collected can be pretty revealing, so much so that the DOJ wants access. For the most part, privacy policies are only as good as the lawyers backing them, and "law of the land" can trump anything. And all of that adds up to worrisome prospects for all of us.

* the_future_modernes has been doing info roundups on anonymous vs. private security firms/Bank of America/US chamber of congress/lots of people. Informative and entertaining!

* I found this article on death on Mt. Everest both interesting and deeply disturbing - WARNING FOR GRAPHIC PHOTOS.

Moving on...

* Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Dinosaur Sex

* pollums has posted a bunch of beautiful, sensual, turn of the century ads for men's Interwoven Socks. They are amazing. pollums regularly posts vintage illustrations and is an amazing artist in her own right, you should check out her journal.

* We're going to get new Avatar comics!

* The owners of Project:Messiah, an industrial grade 3D animation program, are trying an experiment - they're offering the entry version for $10 (regularly $499) and the whole package for $40 (regularly $1195). Everyone needs a chance to show what they can do. That chance is more often limited by money; maybe that's you, maybe that's someone you know; a parent, a friend, some students of yours. We got a chance to prove what we could do starting out, and now we're giving one to you. I'm a little stunned.

* Boingboing again: Mike Mignola talks setting and architecture.

* Google recently launched Art Project, virtual tours of some of the world's best art museums. Shiny!

* build_a_world's February/March challenge is 'Create and Use a Conlang'. Even if you're not participating, the resource post is worth raiding.

Comments

[forthwritten]

Re: death on Mt Everest, if you can get hold of a copy of Into Thin Air it's both fascinating and disturbing - really detailed account of climbing Everest, the Death Zone and the combination of factors that can make things go so terribly wrong.

[pseudo_tsuga]

Thank you for the article on Mt. Everest. I never fully understood the dangers of the summit until I read it.

...wow, those sock ads. Fetish Fuel for sure.