Notes

If everything were free, just think how bored we’d all be. Geekonomics

Are search engines making students dumber–or do they just not know how to use search engines well? Searching for Dummies – NYT

My first review for Wired is out, in April’s issue. It’s on page 74, but for you digital types, it’s also midway down this page: Wired 14.04: PLAY

“There isn’t a single great work in the history of civilization, no novel, symphony, film, or song that was completed as a 1/5th time-slice between e-mail, IM, cellphones and television.” Attention and sex – scottberkun.com

Not ready for show time yet, but still pretty cool (and environmentally-friendly, too, the researchers claim): World’s first transparent integrated circuit created

Tim O’Reilly posts a lengthy list of links from the Reading 2.0 summit in SF yesterday, which covers a range of issues relevant to libraries and publishers, including DRM, tagging, microformats, access, and more.

Roller Derby queen and former Bay City Bomber Ann Calvello has died at the age of 76.

Glad it wasn’t my $300 robot Torrone sent out into traffic, that crazy guy: Roomba takes Frogger to the asphalt jungle | CNET News.com

Photographs of a “sky burial,” where vultures are invited to eat the corpse: Tibetan sky burial in China. (And here’s another eyewitness account, with better text but no pics)

The superfast “Ian Knot” looks intriguing. Unfortunately I almost never wear shoes with laces anymore. How To Tie Your Shoes (via JOHO)

Bizarrely cool: turn your profile into a lathed piece of wood. Turn Your Head (via Cory on BoingBoing)

Visit Mars, virtually: Google Mars