And so another year passes… These things are going faster and faster every time, I swear.

If there’s one thing I think you’ll appreciate, it’s the following from The Daily Show: The Daily Show isn’t exactly a bastion of independence, so let the AP sort out a little fact check on various things said over the last couple of days (via Dooce). Here’s another fact-check from AP on Palin’s claim that she “opposed the bridge to nowhere”, when she did no such thing. I thought it was an interesting nomination, but it’s proving itself to be quite a bit of a farce. ...

With the release of the new browser Google Chrome, some people went digging into the Terms of Service you click so fast past, and discovered: [W]hen you download Google’s new Chrome browser, you agree that any “content” you “submit, post or display” using the service — whether you own its copyright or not — gives Google a “perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute” it. ...

Charlie Wilson’s War: Amusingly told story of how Charlie Wilson, a smokin’, drinkin’, womanising politician from Texas got the Afghan war of the 80s off the ground. A bit too light-hearted given the relevance of the subject matter today, and unrepentent - the argument being that “it would have been alright if we allocated more money to follow through after the war had been won,” which looks a lot like retroactive re-writing of facts to my cynical nature. ★★☆ ...

The terrifying cost of feeling safer: “Transnational terrorism across the world leads to an average of 420 deaths a year. With a global population of 6.6 billion, that’s not a big risk. The chance of being killed in a road accident is very much higher… Even the chance of contracting HIV/AIDS would be much higher.” Ross Gittins points out how much we’re spending to “combat” the emepheral threat of terrorism, and the missed opportunity cost of spending this money on something useful instead. ...