Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes by Daniel L. Everett is a mind expanding read. I have lived in Africa and Ireland, traveled to North America, Indonesia and Greece and the experience, the culture and the basics of life have been largely the same. I thought Indonesia was quite different to my Western ways but in hindsight it was not. Travel with Dan Everett to the home of the Pirahãs on the banks of the Amazon and you meet a people and culture very different from much of the world. Dan is a linguist and uses his study of the Pirahã language to highlight the differences. One fascinating aspect is the mode of “immediate experience” the Pirahãs live in. They have no written nor oral history, only events that have been witnessed by a living person are important to them. This has great implications for their way of life and ends up affecting the author greatly. The book does descend into a bit of a Battle of the Linguistic Theories but it is well worth reading.

French want a VIP box for the Croke Park match against Ireland. Ireland duly offers options. France is not in a humorous mood.

Ten laws of the internet.

“written with playback in mind” is writing as a performance art. Possible with the playback features of Etherpad and Google Wave.

Excellent promotional video of Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. The TSSG collaborated with Dr. Peter Parnes from LTU-CDT in a recent FP7 proposal.

A Boxee set-top-box is in the works.

An ant farm where the “soil” is a gel that the ants can both eat and live in.

A Facebook developer quits iPhone development because of ethical issues with Apple’s review process. Mentions how he doesn’t want developers having to go through middlemen to get to users. Hang on a sec, this guy works for Facebook, the new AOL of walled gardens. Facebook’s “open” policies are like a kimono hiding a chastity belt.

Matt Meola can surf.

Disappointed to find out the Louvre has a shopping mall in it. And no, an Apple store is no different from any other retail store and doesn’t belong next to great art.