Monthly Archives: April 2005

The Incredible Shrinking State

Suffolk County lost 1.5 percent of its residents between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004, the steepest decline of any county in southern New England and the third consecutive year the county’s population dropped, according to US Census Bureau … Continue reading

Posted in Serious News | 1 Comment

Dowbrigade South

When we met up with No. 1 Son, Dowbrigade, Jr., in Lima, Peru early this month, he was a bundle of surprises. He had just returned from leading a small group of tourists on a tour of the Peruvain Jungle, flying … Continue reading

Posted in Friends and Family | 1 Comment

Robots Replace Underage Camel Jockeys

The United Arab Emirates says it will use robots as jockeys for camel races from next season. The move comes after widespread international criticism of the use of young children to ride camels during the long and often hazardous races. … Continue reading

Posted in Wacky News | 2 Comments

Thinking Outside the Box in Higher Ed

In an attempt to restrain the constant search for ever bigger, younger bodies, the NBA has proposed a 20-year-old limit for players in the league. Jermaine O’ Neil, one of many recent professional basketball players to go directly from high … Continue reading

Posted in Sports | 1 Comment

RIAA Targets New Technology

Hiawatha Bray in today’s Boston Globe reports on the latest round of RIAA lawsuits, the biggest yet.  This time they are targeting college students using Internet2 and a file sharing program called "i2hub". Dozens of Massachusetts college students will be … Continue reading

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New England Revolution vs. Emelec

Today, the Dowbrigade would like to don his sportswriter cap and report on the much anticipated showdown between our hometown New England Revolution and the glamour team of the Ecuadorian first division, Emelec. The Emelec squad is known locally as … Continue reading

Posted in Sports | 2 Comments

EFF Issues Guide to Anonymous Blogging

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted a set of blogging guidelines. This is a topic we have been kicking around at the Berkman Blogger’s Meetings. The EFF Guidelines are more accurately a guide to how to blog without losing your job; in … Continue reading

Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment

Natural Born Video Bloggers

The world’s first fully functional, humanoid, child-sized robots have gone on sale in Japan.  They get all the cool stuff first. We expect that most of these babies wull get snatched up by collectors and investors.  After all, someday owning … Continue reading

Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment

Fear Factory at BU

Brain biologist Joe Tsien got famous six years ago for creating a genetically engineered ”smart mouse" with an improved memory. But for all his success, he felt troubled: He had altered memory, but he still did not know what exactly … Continue reading

Posted in Wacky News | 1 Comment

Revoltuion-Emelec

Today, the Dowbrigade will don his sportswriter cap and report on the much anticipoated showdown between our hometown New England Revolution and the glamor team of the Ecuadorian first division, Emelec. The Emelec squad is known locally as “Los Milonarios,” … Continue reading

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What’s on the President’s iPod?

Not sure why this should be news, but it is a sick, sorry reflection on the state of the union that we are fascinated by this kind of drivel-driven trivia. Elisabeth Bumiller in the New York Times goes into alltogether … Continue reading

Posted in Wacky News | 1 Comment

Squeezin

A good example of the convergence of capitalism and technology in a consumer-driven context is in battery technology.   While Moore’s Law has governed processing and storage, in the arena of energy storage, no major innovations or performance enhancements have … Continue reading

Posted in Technology | 1 Comment