Link Banana

Perhaps the fact that I discovered this on Metafilter is a commentary on the nature of news-flow or my inattentiveness, but it seems that Raphael Correa got a new constitution of the term-extending type that Hugo Chavez recently failed to secure.

Perhaps more interesting, the document gives inalienable rights to nature, like:

Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution.

Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.

Two people I respect a great deal, Marc Ambinder and David Brooks, both think the failure of the bailout yesterday makes obvious the full-scale meltdown of the GOP. Here’s Brooks:

House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.

Gems Sty points to a very cool way to browse Flickr photos: by color. It even lets you do many colors at once.

For a limited time only, you can Google like it’s January 2001. Andy Baio points to a few drastically different searches:

9/11, YouTube, Sarah Palin, or this [his] blog

Wow:

Here’s a number to savor: 2^43,112,609-1.

Its size is mind-boggling. With nearly 13 million digits, it makes the number of atoms in the known universe seem negligible, a mere 80 digits.

And its form is tidy and lovely: 2ⁿ-1.

(via BBG)

Many people have linked to this article on Flickr’s Director of Community and I didn’t get why. Then I read it. It’s pretty interesting.

This made me cry.

Via Clusterflock, Edward Merritt’s (presumably self-authored) obituary in the Dallas Morning News:

Merritt, Edward “Bruce” Born April 3, 1951 in North Carolina. He was one of eight children. His older sisters regularly beat him up, put him in dresses, and then forced him to walk to the drugstore to buy their Kotex and cigarettes. After graduation from high school he went on to lead a life of luxury in the United States Air Force. After excaping from the government he spent most of his life as a mechanic, husband, and father. Bruce Merritt never met a stranger, and in many ways was stranger than most. He is survived by one daughter, two grand- children, two ex-wives, unpaid taxes, and many loyal loving friends.

I think this chart gives the one mentioned here a run for it’s money. There’s nothing like a well-made graph to make reveal the utter silliness of many political issues.

Some people of some repute — Chris Bowers, David Cay Johnston, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur — think that there’s really no need for Hank Paulson’s $700 billion dollar proposal (or anything like it). I don’t know nearly enough to have anything intelligent to say, but i thought I’d note it.

(via @gruber)

UPDATE (20 minutes later): Also:

• An open letter from economists doubtful of Paulson’s plan.
• Felix Salmon and Ryan Avent answer David Cay Johnston (linked above). (via Yglesias)
• A chart to put the massive size of the proposal in historical context. (via Kevin Drum)

It seems ludicrous, but Steven Dubner makes it seem a touch less ludicrous.

Ze Frank recently put together a sweet song. A reminder that you’ll be fine.

Also, I recently listened to Mr. Frank on The Sound of Young America and thought it a truly great interview. Video here.

Because sometimes Digg bait is just too pretty.

Richard Wilson writes an incredibly enjoyable list of ten books you probably shouldn’t read before you die. His reasons are probably the most fun. On The Lord of the Rings:

The best I can say about this book is that it was a very useful tool at school for helping to choose your friends. Carrying a copy of Tolkien’s monstrous tome was the equivalent of a leper’s bell: ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ I knew I would have nothing in common with anyone who had read it. Their taste in music, clothes, television, everything was predetermined by their devotion to Gandalf. Without a shadow of a doubt, in a few years, these people would be going to Peter Gabriel gigs and reading Dune.

(via Ideas)

An interesting disease discussed at some length in a rather old (and good) episode of Bloggingheads:

 A striking feature of LNS is self-mutilating behaviors, characterized by lip and finger biting, that begin in the second year of life. Neurological symptoms include facial grimacing, involuntary writhing, and repetitive movements of the arms and legs similar to those seen in Huntington’s disease. The direct cause of the neurological abnormalities remains unknown. 

In the discussion, Richard Preston uses the more jarring name “self-cannibalism.”

Jason Kottke and a few high-end linen sellers, are convinced that thread count (of bed sheets and other linens) doesn’t matter. As someone who has handled his fair share of low quality, high thread count sheets, I think they’re more than right.

An interesting bit of cocktail chatter, if nothing else:

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, has filed a lawsuit in Texas demanding Senators John McCain and Barack Obama be removed from the ballot after they missed the official filing deadline.

“The seriousness of this issue is self-evident,” the lawsuit states. “The hubris of the major parties has risen to such a level that they do not believe that the election laws of the State of Texas apply to them.”

(via Slashdot)

This is unquestionably the greatest “watch me change over time” video I’ve seen.

(via Heading East)

Also, Kottke points to Dan Hanna’s description of how he took the pictures for the video.

If you’re wondering why the world hasn’t ended yet, this may be why. Quoth Slashdot:

“A 30-ton transformer in the Large Hadron Collider malfunctioned, requiring complete replacement on the day the LHC came online. No one at CERN reported any problems, and they only released this data once the Associated Press sent people to investigate rumors of problems. I guess it’s hard to just sweep a 30-ton transformer breaking under the rug.”

The other amazing I hadn’t realized was this: an operating temperature of 4.5 Kelvin was too hot for the thing to work properly.

Jim Albrecht pens an enjoyable defense of the Alaska of his childhood. While it’s tangentially a defense of Sarah Palin, it’s really just good fun. One of the more serious lines:

Wilderness has a bully pulpit all its own, and, back when we could still hear it over the cell phones and the four-stroke snow machines, it preached a repetitive sermon. 1) We don’t all have to agree about everything, 2) but we do all have to survive the winter. If the Alaska of my childhood could be put on the stump, I believe that would be the content of its speech.