Today's big news is the glorious defeat of the broadcast flag!  Yippee!  This is good for all of us.  Many thanks to Cory Doctorow, Fred von Lohmann, and all their colleagues at the EFF who have engineered this defeat.  Now we just have to get rid of software patents :) 

Apropos: The Make website has detailed instructions on how to build a combination DVR, music server, and game machine out of an old computer.  Very cool and would be impossible if the broadcast flag were in effect.  [ via Mark Frauenfelder ] 

Robert X. Cringley has posted a rambly column in which he discusses the long tail of jet travel, and also his thoughts about Apple's video plans.  I totally agree, the iTunes music store will be the iTunes video store by the end of the year.  And there will be a video pod.  Only I don't think it will be a "pod", per se, I think it will be a Mini Mac -based home entertainment center. 

BTW I missed this but Tiger is out, as you know, and it is great, as you know.  John Siracusa on ArsTechnica has a wonderfully detailed review; great reading for the Spotlight implementation details, file metadata, etc.  Check it out! 

I like this - Spiked asked 250 well-known scientists one question: "What, if you could pick just one thing, would you teach the world about science... and why?"  [ via David Pescovitz ] 

Richard Dawkins:  The scientific principle that I wish everyone understood is Darwinian natural selection, and its enormous explanatory power, as the only known explanation of 'design'... 

CNN has a summary of Warren Buffett's and Charlie Munger's address to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.  I like this quote: "Some people seem to think there's no trouble [with Ford and GM] just because it hasn't happened yet.  If you jump out the window at the 42nd floor and you're still doing fine as you pass the 27th floor, that doesn't mean you don't have a serious problem."  [ via Philip Greenspun ] 

This is so cool - the planetary society (home of SETI) is planning to launch Cosmos 1, the first Solar Sail -powered spacecraft.  They have a great library of images and animations.  The spacecraft will be launched from a submarine. 

Want to see something silly?  With Longhorn, Microsoft has changed the famous BSOD (blue screen of death) to RSOD (red screen of death).  I'm sure it will still happen.  So what color is Apple's Tiger's screen of death?  Uh, they don't have one.  [ via Joi Ito ]