Links
In this issue: Our Lives book info
Web site recommendations: IT/politics/misc
In the past, I have featured excerpts from my father’s book Our Lives:
Encounters of a Scientist.
http://www.esztersblog.com/archives/00000310.html (scroll down)
The book is now out in English and I have brought some copies to the States with me for easy distribution ($18.00 including shipping). Please send me a note if you’re interested.
See Preface and Table of Contents here: http://www.eszter.com/ol . Obviously I’m biased, but it really is a fascinating account of science, scientists, the plight of Hungarian Jews in the 20th century and my father’s personal story.
From the publisher: “In this highly personal book, [the author] writes about his life, the lives of his friends, about his science, and about famous scientists. The scope of this volume encompasses the period from the Holocaust to the present day. He speaks about the inhuman character of political systems, but conveys also the uplifting nature of scientific research, and provides a panoramic picture of the sciences of our time.”
And now onto some Web sites about IT, politics, and as usual, some miscellaneous fun stuff:
Reinventing Media Activism: Public Interest Advocacy in the Making of U.S. Communication-Information Policy, 1960-2002
http://dcc.syr.edu/ford/tnca.htm
(report available online in full)
List of open-access e-journals (all sorts of fields)
http://nnlm.gov/libinfo/ejournals/
CFP General Online Research ‘05 to be held in Zurich, Switzerland
http://www.gor.de/cfp.htm
3rd International Conference on Entertainment Computing
http://www.icec.id.tue.nl/
CFP for next summer’s meeting of the Society for the Advancement of
Socio-Economics on What Counts? Calculation, Representation, Association
http://www.sase.org/conf2004/program/program.part1.html#S5
Heavy Betting on Election Domains
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,63878,00.html
Hilarious (but also SCARY!) movie from the ACLU about loss of privacy
http://www.aclu.org/pizza
(requires ability to play Flash movies)
Neat visualization of musical interests (I wish they had some info
about where they get their data though..)
http://www.musicplasma.com
Register to Vote (in U.S.)
http://www.declareyourself.com
Go on a roadtrip in swing states and get Democrats to register to vote
Where to vote (in US elections)
http://www.mypollingsite.com/
A strategy for winning back Nader supporters
http://www.thenaderfactor.com
Presidential candidates’ views on health policy
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/static/spotlight_election2004_index.cfm
The cost of the war in Iraq (vs other public expenditures)
http://costofwar.com/
Bush cuts off family planning funding from UNFPA 3rd year in a row
http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/UNFPA3/
Genocide underway in Sudan
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/
Melting Ice: The Threat to London’s [and NYC’s etc] Future
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1260825,00.html
Advice from Your Peers (for those going on the academic job market)
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2004/07/2004071501c.htm
(I’m not sure if this is password protected or not)
Short films online (for some alternatives in the genre)
http://atomfilms.shockwave.com
Fun optical illusions
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/saishin2e.html
Google for Governor 
http://www.defectiveyeti.com/archives/000732.html
Today’s quote:
“Talking points, they’re true because they’re said a lot.”
— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, July 15, 2004
(commenting on how we learned that John Kerry and John Edwards are “out of the mainstream”, “most liberal in the Senate” and attend “hatefests”)