Seriously, though, Venn diagrams are a concise and satisfyingly geeky way to convey complex information. Instead of writing a paragraph about how some of the people in my life are geeks, and some of the people in my life are artsy, and explaining that those groups overlap , and further that some subset of the overlapping region will find my webcomic project viscerally satisfying, I can draw three circles in a square and you know exactly what I’m talking about.

And Venn diagrams are versatile! You don’t even have to mouth off to anyone any more if you can just scribble some pithy circles on a bar napkin. Draw three interlocking circles titled “smart people”, “sexy people” and “talented people”, then enclose them in a circle labeled “people who aren’t you” within a larger rectangle labeled “everybody”. See? It’s that easy!

Yes, the Venn diagram could be the key to an new, utopic, entirely non-verbal society. Keep your eye on it!

If you don’t already read Jesus’ General, start with his open letter to Andrew Schlafly about the whole Conservapædia Statistics thing. The General has been a staple of my daily reading for ages, and I hope he will lighten your days with his keen conservative American insights as well.

via Boing Boing.

The 2007 Ennies votes are happening, and the small press games that are up for awards need your help. If you’re a fan of Spirit of the Century, Burning Empires, Lacuna, Dictionary of Mu, Dawning Star: Helios Rising, Faery’s Tale, or Hollow Earth Expedition, this is a chance for you to stand up like me and make a difference. The voting is happening starting July 16th over at the Ennie Awards site and lasts only two weeks. There’s no better time to cast your vote than today!

You find a sample ballot here: Grab a Sample Ballot

And you can place your votes here during the voting period starting on July 16th: The Ennie Awards Voting Site

Together we can be heard. Become a Summer Hero. Cast your vote, and let other people know how to become heroes themselves!

Find out how to put this message in your own blog!

Yes, the One Laptop Per Child project (aka the 100$ laptop) has its first buyers. Nigeria bought and paid for 1 million units recently. OLPC says once they get to 5-10 million units bought and paid for they will begin production. So they’re 10-20% of the way there!

Update: apparently OLPC is still negotiating with Nigeria, and the deal has not been finalized. I’ve been unable to confirm this on the OLPC site, but apparently Brazil, Argentina and Thailand are in negotiations as well. If they get 1 million laptops as well, OLPC is only 1 million away from being able to ship.

OLPC news confirms that Thailand is engaged in analysis of the benefits of the program…

via Worldchanging

For more information on the abortion googlebomb campaign see this post by Jake.

Really, none whatsoever. Of course, there are some things that could be interpreted as such, but that would be a mistake. Take for example the below conversation between the Department of Homeland Security and the Census Bureau, circa December 2003. This transcript is an exaggeration, of course, but the underlying facts are about right. As you’ll see, this dialogue demonstrates that the US Department of Homeland Security is not engaging in any racial-profiling-type activities.

Homeland Security

Hi, we’d like to get some statistics on the distributions of A-rabs around the country.

Census Bureau

Uh, sure. Okay. So what information do you need?

HS

Do you have a record of the request we made in August 2002?

CB

Yeah, hold on… [pause] It says here you asked for a list of all cities with at least 1000 Arab-Americans.

HS

That’s right. Well, we need the same thing, almost. Basically the same thing, plus a bit more information.

CB

Okay, what extra information do you need?

HS

Well, we need this one by zip code.

CB

No problem, ma’am, we can do that.

HS

And not just in cities with a thousand A-rabs or more, all of them. Also we want their country of origin. And can you get a list of names as well? Perhaps stuff like how much money each person gets from foreign sources per year, and how much they spend in places like hardware stores?

CB

Uh… well, we can’t give you any individually identifying information. We can give you country of origin, but not any of that detailed financial stuff.

HS

Well, that’ll have to do. And I was just kidding about all that big brother stuff. Forget I even asked.

CB

Um, okay. Hey, out of curiosity, why do you want this?

HS

It’s a routine info gathering for Customs and Border Protection.

CB

Um… Customs and Border Protection? Why do they want it?

HS

You know you’re required to give us this information, right?

CB

I know, I know. I’ve almost finished preparing the request. I was curious, is all.

HS

Well, if you must know, we’re compiling information about where there are lots of A-rabs so we can put a-rabic language signs up in the airports. You know, stuff like “bathroom this way” or “one piece of carry-on per passenger.”

CB

Ri-ight. So this has nothing to do with racial profiling.

HS

Why, I’m appalled at the very idea. This information is not under any circumstances going to be used to assess potential threat zones and increase police coverage of high-risk areas with a lot of A-rabs in them. It’s for the thing I said before, about the signs or whatever.

CB

But why do you need to know country of origin?

HS

So we can write the signs in the right language, obviously.

CB

What difference does it make if someone is Jordanian, Egyptian or Moroccan? The language is basically the same except for pronunciation, isn’t it?

HS

That’s right, and we need to write with the correct pronunciation.

CB

But…

HS

This conversation is over. Has the document request gone through?

CB

Yes…

HS

Good. *click*

See? It’s right there in black and white. From the article: “The information is not in any way being used for law-enforcement purposes,” says a spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection. I can’t think of any more convincing evidence possible.

Since I started drafting this the article has disappeared from the original location. So I found the Google cache and copied it.
source: http://memethief.com/archives/seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/184279_census30.html

See explorerdestroyer.com for details.