This is amazing. Life magazine and Google are collaborating to put the magazine’s photo archive online.

Looking back at some of the pictures, especially the ones of Hawai’i in WWII (look at Diamond Head!), I am startled by their clarity, and by seeing them in an album like I would see pictures of my friends taken just days ago. It really brings history much closer for me.

This will most definitely be my final Michaelmas Term as a student at Oxford. I have once again let the Autumn go, but not without at least a few (albeit poor-quality) photos of the scenic vistas of this wonderful city.

Enjoy. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for the Thanksgiving webcam on the 22nd (next Saturday)! That’s right, we’re having Thanksgiving the weekend before the official day this year.

[Warning: possible funniness-elimination text below]

One of the case studies I am doing for my thesis is on the encryption debate at the Wassenaar Arrangement during the late 1990s, over the topic that is discussed in this comic. Basically, strong encryption of electronic communication was rapidly becoming widespread throughout the world, and there was a significant effort by several governments to keep the encryption under export controls. If they had been successful, a person would have had to apply for a license to send or use the software outside of the country the software came from, this included famously the restriction on the export of a version of Netscape Communicator, which was eventually relaxed.

The poignant thing I find in this comic is the point that, were this level of encryption still covered as a munitions item (for US export controls), its use by individual citizens would have very likely become a hot topic for the “right to bear arms” lobby. Was that a factor in deciding to decontrol it? This question points to larger issues, one of which is that it is not at all clear where the line is (or even should be) drawn between what is a military technology and what is not. Have you ever bought something online? Then you have likely used encryption that was heavily controlled only ten years ago. Do you feel safer for having that encryption? You can see that there is a trade-off here; citizens’ safety (and their privacy) is arguable increased while state security is (or could be) diminished. Which side of the political fence would you like to be on?

It’s my nephew’s 2nd birthday today, so I thought I would make him a little movie.

Happy Birthday, Will!

[Let me know if you have trouble viewing it. It’s an .mp4 file]

The BBC has posted a series of pictures from its Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

I loved this one of a Sulawesi black-crested macaque; it looks like he’s (she’s?) saying “mmm!  What have we got here? Curious!”

The backdrop is stunning too.

I just thought I should mention that it’s snowing right now.

In October.

In Oxford.

I’ll give ten points to the person who can link this to the financial crisis

A stipulation of getting my recent Extension of Status to finish my doctorate was that I had to adhere to a strict timeline for submitting parts of my thesis to my supervisor. I decided that these were good dates to make public, to let everyone know where I am in the grand scheme of thesis-dom. So, right under the pictures on in the sidebar here are my deadlines, which are taken from my thesis google calendar. I plan out a few days to a week at a time, and the calendar will update automatically. If you want a topic of conversation, my life is my thesis at the moment, and here’s what’s coming up.

My Research site has been live for a few weeks now, and I thought I would mention it here.  There’s not a whole lot up there yet, but hopefully once I get my doctorate and start publishing, it will get busier.

I have also move my CV over there, and added a link to the new site in the top bar above.

I know it is nearly time for Thanksgiving 2008, so I thought I should finally put up the video from last year (click here for a larger version). It was a wonderful feast with lots of good friends. I thought that 2007 might be my last Thanksgiving in Oxford, but as it turns out, I’m here for one more. This year it will be on 22 November — the Saturday before Thanksgiving — as that is when my friends can all make it. There will once again be a webcam set up, and I will post the link here for all who wish to watch as the day unfolds.

As with before, this is a compilation of webcam images taken every five seconds over the course of the day. Complete with commentary, ads, and a soundtrack, I hope you enjoy it.

While New College has been around for 600+ years, it has only admitted women since 1979. Today we had the unveiling of a bronze plaque commemorating the first 25 years of women at New College, including a showing of some of the College treasures (though noticeably absent was the unicorn horn…).