Google Appengine

Last tuesday I was at a meeting in the local python-interest group in Barcelona. We discussed http://appengine.google.com/ - the new service from google that allows people who know just a bit about programming to make their own internet programs.
How is that different from the blogging service that google already offers here on blogspot? Blogspot lets you type text, and then displays the text. Appengine allows you to create a program that lets you input data (directly or indirectly) and then have those data processed and displayed in a structured manner.

Why is this great? Because "activation energy" is a dominant obstacle to creativity, and Appengine lowers the activation energy of making internet programs drastically. With Appengine, you just need to program. The easy and fun task. You don't need to buy a domain name, buy hosting or set up a server, install stuff and look out for the server.

Appengine is the kind of tool that allows the internet to run on love (see below about the internet running on love).

Nuclear winter?

Reading mostly biology papers it is not that often I see a scientific paper with the keyword "nuclear winter".

However, here is one:

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/short/105/14/5307?rss=1

Unfortunately it is not open access and I can't find it on arXiv , but I guess the paper shows that nuclear war is an even worse idea than previously recognized.