Linux distributions, bloggers, and other aggregators

Luis notes interesting similarities between blogging and other forms of "remixable commons-based culture":

"As long as licenses are respected, for-profit content aggregation (into a software distribution, a web-based blog aggregator, or whatever) is generally acceptable. If creators don't personally find it acceptable, the onus is likely on them to choose an appropriate license. The aggregators which are perceived to give the most back to the communities and individuals they draw from are likely to be most popular, at least among opinion leaders."

This sounds plausible, but notwithstanding hypotheses concerning the differences between Sun, Red Hat and, say, Ubuntu, proper concepts are lacking. This calls for study.

A Roach at the Wheel

Artist Garnet Hertz has equipped his cockroatches with robotic vehicles. The roach uses a ping-pong ball as a mouse wheel for steering. They seem to navigate around obstacles just fine most of the time, but "roaches aren't the most predictable bugs".

As with technology so often, this experiment has philosophical implications. Accoring to Mr. Repetto of Columbia University, while robotics has always been about amplifying human ability, Hertz's device "gives roaches skills they wouldn't normally have, which brings up all sorts of questions, including many about responsibility and consciousness".

125 Questions

Science Magazine celebrates its 125th anniversary, not by celebrating advances in our knowledge but by pondering 125 questions to which we don't know the answer. "What is the universe made of". Hmm. "Will Malthus continue to be wrong?" "How did Cooperative Behavior Evolve". These are among Science's biggies. "Why does the phone always ring when you start eating dinner" is still, apparently, not top priority. I guess scientists are willing to let the real tough questions to Dirk Gently.

How to get published for certain

David Egilman's paper was rejected by the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine two years ago, so he published it as an advertisement in the same journal. Don't know if it's funny or heroic or scary.