searching all published books, concentration camps, and binary accessories

Today Amazon released a new feature, the ability to actually search the content of books. They have more than 120,000 books scanned in, and it's growing at a rate that only Amazon could accomplish. This is fucking incredible. It addresses one of the concerns that I've had for a long time about the narrowness of my generation's information field. Most people think of everything being available on the Net, but it's not, so we're ignoring everything published in books and treating the internet as God. There's a really good Wired article that just came out about the Amazon project, and some other book digitizing projects.

Anyone who hasn't heard of the Sony QRIO, check it out. I want one so bad. The movies of what it can do are stunning. They're way beyond any other robotic prototype I've seen. I love Sony.

Apparently both the House and the Senate have voted to lift the travel ban on Cuba. This is a pretty big deal. I'm curious to see if Bush will sign or veto. Personally, I don't see any reason to keep it up. We allow Americans to travel to all kinds of other countries that abuse the shit out of their people and have no freedom of press. Might as well be consistent.

Concentration camps are alive and well in North Korea, according to a new report. Apparently there are 150,000-200,000 political prisoners in lifetime labor concentration camps in North Korea. Especially charming is the report that policial dissidents are tossed into camps with several generations of their families, and first hand accounts of babies being tossed into boxes in bulk to die, immediately after birth.

To cheer you up, here's some fun stuff. Ever wonder how pencils are made? Me too. Also, for no apparent reason, binary wristwatches.