cut yourself until you bleed, but fall asleep next to me

The arrival of the Nightwatch:

As you may have already guessed, the handful of provisions in the bill that really deal specifically with child porn are a fig leaf for its true purpose: A sweeping data retention requirement meant to turn Internet Service Providers and online companies into surrogate snoops for the government’s convenience. Any provider of an “electronic communication” or “remote computing” service—meaning broadband providers like Comcast, but also companies like Google—would have to retain records of the “temporarily assigned network address” (such as an IP address) associated with each account for 18 months. Some of the other provisions in the act seem perfectly reasonable (though I don’t know enough to say whether they’re necessary), but as a hearing earlier this year made crystal clear, it’s the data retention requirement that the government really cares about.

Big Brother always wants to watch everyone, that's not news, but that this effort is hidden in the guise of protecting children just makes me ill.

Are we all holograms? Maybe, say scientists. Fascinating if true--well, no, actually, fascinating either way.

Some Doctor Who info overheard from Comic-Con (and my thanks to Miss Fuschia Begonia for the link).

If you love art, if you love cephalopods, toss some love to Octopus Grove: part art installation, part eco-consciousness awareness mission, and all from the hand, heart and head of an artist who wants to give back as much as they want to create. Spread the word if you can't financially support; or buy things from her, to support her effort to support herself, and thus get Octopus Grove off the ground.

On another topic entirely, here's a little diatribe on the snakepit of modern comics, as viewed through the lens of the nineties, courtesy of Warren Ellis.

Tired of the supernatural getting all the attention? Try these seventeen real-life mysteries. They're all fascinating, and none of them is involved in anything supernatural in the least.

And if you have been banned from Google+ (or all Google products), Skud would like you to fill out a form collating everyone into one central database. One would assume for later legal action, or at least, hassling of the Google.

Through an oversite, the JIRA issue EXP-795 was hidden from public view. Thanks to the efforts of Kurt Linden (and thank you, Kurt, for doing this), it is now public and searchable. And it no longer effects just the login screen, but a couple different things in Basic viewer mode for v2. Watch the issue if you want to see it fixed; if you have a 27" monitor, or a Mac computer, you want to see this fixed.

My sidebar is a nightmare. This has been pointed out several times. And, to date, each attempt to rein it in has resulted in more links. (I am bad at organization.)

So, with a ruthless hand and tearful heart, I've cut out everything I don't visit at least once per week. Because, considering the sidebar is mostly for me, having it that cluttered does no one any good.

Next up: going through the video links (where I stopped, this time around). Next past that: gutting the in-world inventory. Again. GAH.