In essence, Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive. Why?

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. Facebook is no longer alone in offering this sort of interaction online. In the last year, there has been a boom in tools for “microblogging”: posting frequent tiny updates on what you’re doing.

...

Psychologists and sociologists spent years wondering how humanity would adjust to the anonymity of life in the city, the wrenching upheavals of mobile immigrant labor — a world of lonely people ripped from their social ties. We now have precisely the opposite problem. Indeed, our modern awareness tools reverse the original conceit of the Internet. When cyberspace came along in the early ’90s, it was celebrated as a place where you could reinvent your identity — become someone new.

...

(Indeed, the question that floats eternally at the top of Twitter’s Web site — “What are you doing?” — can come to seem existentially freighted. What are you doing?) Having an audience can make the self-reflection even more acute, since, as my interviewees noted, they’re trying to describe their activities in a way that is not only accurate but also interesting to others: the status update as a literary form.

Magazine Preview - I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You - Clive Thompson - NYTimes.com

In honor of Jack and Doris CrossAlzheimer's DiagnosisGet a Web Ribbon

Alzheimer's Web Ribbon

GDP of the top four national economies in the world (after the US), expressed as US regions by GSP. null

The Scale of the American Economy on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Jeremy Mayer collects antique typewriters, but he doesn't display them in a curio cabinet. Instead, he tears them apart, then turns the components into sleek, sci-fi-inspired bugs, skeletons and anatomically correct human figures.

Typewriters Morph Into Creepy Sci-Fi Creatures

Sweet mouth-watering fruits provide us with a healthy source of food, but that is not the reason why plants produce them. Fruit, and the seeds they protect, are crucial to species' survival.

A new book - written by two experts from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - reveals the ingenious and often devious strategies which plants have developed to help ensure their continued existence.

Here, with the help of colourful close up images, Kew's seed morphologist Wolfgang Stuppy explains some of the tactics:

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Fruit under the microscope

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the US of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia, possibly for domestic election purposes.

hahaha

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Putin says US was behind conflict

On August 23rd, a computer reported finding a new Mersenne prime to the server! Because I was on vacation, verification did not begin until the 26th. Two verification runs are in progress. Estimated completion is September 12th and September 16th. Check back here for updates!

Mersenne Prime Search

A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS).

BBC NEWS | Technology | Computer viruses make it to orbit

Astronomers have shed light on how stars can form around a massive black hole, defying conventional wisdom.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Black hole star mystery 'solved'

So for non-lawgeeks, this won't seem important. But trust me, this is huge.

I am very proud to report today that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (THE "IP" court in the US) has upheld a free (ok, they call them "open source") copyright license, explicitly pointing to the work of Creative Commons and others. (The specific license at issue was the Artistic License.) This is a very important victory, and I am very very happy that the Stanford Center for Internet and Society played a key role in securing it. Congratulations especially to Chris Ridder and Anthony Falzone at the Center.

huge and important news: free licenses upheld (Lessig Blog)