news & other links

[baratron]

Bush: The text adventure game - Amusing, if simultaneously thoroughly depressing.

Google will fight Bush Administration demand for search records - I should have an opinion on this, but all I can think is "that is SO not the government's business". Certainly, I cannot see what rights the US government could have over searches that I, as a UK citizen, have made on google.co.uk - especially if the final destination of my search was also outside the US.

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin - very interesting article with reasonable scientific detail, despite being from a mainstream newspaper. I must get an online subscription to New Scientist.

The Grammarian's Five Daughters by Eleanor Arnason. Has been doing the rounds of my friends list - I can't think why :) I have a feeling I've read & linked to this before, but I have no problems with linking to it again.

Comments

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

There's a New Scientist livejournal feed at newscientistrss, if you just wanted updates. Or does the online subscription give you something else?

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Just clicked on it, that gives a whole load of "This feed has been discontinued, please unsubscribe." messages :/

A subscription gives you access to the full text of all the articles, which is what I'd want - every so often I go to the site & start reading, then follow a link and find the article is for paid members only. I don't want to get the paper magazine because it will just sit around until I have a pile of 4 or 5 of them sitting unread, accompanied by a guilty feeling. So subscribing to the web site seems the way forward.

[otterylexa.livejournal.com]

I like "Their diagrams of kinship excited the awe of neighbors, and their marriages grew more intricate with each generation."

[johnckirk.livejournal.com]

According to the New Scientist website:
http://www.qssa.co.uk/new_scientist_new/faq.asp#14
you can't get an "online only" subscription; if you get a print subscription then this includes free online access. They've got a promotion going at the moment: 2.95 for 4 issues, with unlimited online access, but it's not clear on whether that's "unlimited for ever" or "unlimited for 4 months, then you have to keep paying the monthly/annual subscription fee". I'm guessing that there are some limits on the unlimited access :)

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that makes sense.

I hadn't even noticed that the feed was down. :( Did they start the subscription system recently? If so, I wonder if they discontinued the feed at that time.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

Huh. I was sure they did. I'd better contact them directly, then. Because I don't want the paper magazines, to sit around occupying space and/or go straight into my recycling bin. It's wasteful to take paper resources that you don't intend to use.

[bob]

The Grammarian's Five Daughters by Eleanor Arnason.

ive definetly read it before. i cant remember if it was online or on dead trees

[johnckirk.livejournal.com]

Yup, I totally agree. I had a leaflet through the post today offering me a cheap subscription, but we get each month's magazine in the staff lounge at work, and I rarely read that, so I'm unlikely to suddenly start reading my own copy.

Looking at their FAQ pages again, this page says "At the moment there are no plans for a web-only subscription. Please contact us stating clearly your interest in such a service and we will keep your email address on file so that we can contact you in the event that such a subscription becomes available."

However, they also mention New Scientist Digital:
http://newscientist.newsstand.com/
The idea seems to be that you get an electronic copy of each magazine issue (via the web), which includes all adverts etc., so you'd be avoiding the waste of paper. However, you don't get access to the "paid only" areas of the main website. I don't know whether you'd actually miss out on any content that way, or whether it's just more hassle to look up your local copy.

Anyway, it's all a bit confusing, so I'll be interested to hear how you get on if you do contact them.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Eep! I was mistaken about the name. The actual (working) feed for it is newscientrss.