Ending Peer-to-peer pressure
(An article from MIT's Technology Review.) From the makers of Kazza comes a way easing the burden on the internet brought on by peer-to-peer users -- solution? cache the peer-to-peer files locally at the ISPs so that local requests can be fulfilled locally instead of going around the world to get the file. The problem with this approach however, is that suddenly, the ISPs will know what is being shared -- suddenly the RIA can subpoena the data being held on the ISP's servers, find out what's being shared, and then since, there is evidence of illegal activity, request the names of everyone who requests the files -- which gets kind of complicated -- because if a user is making an illegal request -- doesn't the ISP, now delivering on that request, also be conducting illegal activities by fulfilling the request? Of course, if the RIA's member companies were smart, they'd just want to know what's shared so that they can know what the demand is so they can deliver it for pay via alternative channels. But that would be smart -- better to call out the lawyers.
The first chef
First came fire ... and then, as the camera shifts to the soon to be late-village idiot, you're left wondering -- just what was going through that mind -- and food is put on the fire, for the first time, and cooking is accidentally discovered by humanity. The first chef is ridiculed by grunts, then the local thug tries a sample of the burnt carcass, and soon, everybody gets queued at the McDonalds drive-thru. What happened? Richard Wrangham of Harvard believes there's more to cooking than evolutionary history would have you believe. Wrangham points out that there is no way homo sapiens could survive on just raw food. Raw food just doesn't give up calories as easily as cooked food -- and raw food makes the digestive system expend more energy to get at those calories. Cooking on the other hand breaks complex molecules down, allowing the digestive system to make easy work of them -- and cooking also softens food, allowing the body to get to the calories with less effort...
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