Nothing to see here

Move along, move along

it’s all about control

it’s all about control is moving.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog

Reason XVIII why thye internette ys yclepte grate. Without it, Chaucer would not been revealed to the world at large. Or at least his advice column.

blog chaucer funny

Web site sues Google over drop in rank

KinderStart.com is suing Google because their Google PageRank has fallen dramatically. It seems that many of their high traffic pages are being blacklisted, click-throughs have fallen off a cliff and ad revenue is in free-fal right next to them. When asked about well known techniques used to drive up PageRank. a company spokesman said

This is not about playing games.

No guys, it's about building a business around the assumption that Google is doing something now and will continue to do so, and then getting shocked when a company with whom you have no contracts or guarantees does something without consulting you. Idiots. They are claiming that their first-amendment rights are being infringed on because their message isn't being delivered. As many other have said, the 1st amendment guarantees your right to say something, it most certainly doesn't guarantee you an audience.

free_speech google stupid_lawyer_tricks business

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Children and the Vote

No, seriously, why not? How are children as a group different from other groups who were previously disenfranchised and who may now vote?

See you next month. (Just kidding.)

politics voting children

Firefox Extensions -- TagUtil

Oh yeah, and the tag links in the post below were generated with the TagUtil extension and an import of my del.icio.us tags. See google? I have to use the enemy. Can you say categories?

DevilDucky - Fatboy Slim: The Joker

I have more than 300 Boingboing entries, more than 100 Slashdots and if there was a Homestarruner feed I would be behind on that too. Meanwhile, for your entertainment I present kittens

funny fatboy_slim music video kittens

"the beginning of the end"

I wonder, do those who are on the threshold of a new era ever *know* it? This could be a shot in the dark..... or not....

Digital film: Industry answers

I'm pretty sure that the MPAA respondant would not have mentioned the rsearch result that Lavinia Carey from the British Video Association did

UK research shows that, on average, downloaders are film fans who view the same number of legitimate films (cinema, rented and bought DVDs) as the average active DVD consumer

Boing Boing: Canadian Red Cross wastes its money harassing video game makers

It seems that the Canadian Red Cross does not approve of video games using a red cross icon to represent a health-up. Yes, they are certainly making the most out of your charity dollar aren't they.

It turns out that he never even finished his journalism degree

Much fooforaw about a 24 year old Bush appointee in the NASA public relations department censoring senior scientists and their publications.

Crooked Timber » » I’m offended

So true, so true. In addition, I would like to mention that I support the local sports team.

Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons

It seems that there are limits to how far certain Danish newspapers will go to exercise their free speech muscle and apparently it is as far is they want provided that it is unlikely to offend anyone who might actually buy their paper. The money quote:

Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.
The Danish daily turned down the cartoons of Christ three years ago, on the grounds that they could be offensive to readers and were not funny.

Leiter Reports: The rich get richer

Oooooo. These kinds of shenanigans make me so mad! *shakes fist* Money quote:

In 2003 the top 1 percent of households owned 57.5 percent of corporate wealth, up from 53.4 percent the year before, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the latest income tax data. The top group's share of corporate wealth has grown by half since 1991, when it was 38.7 percent.

Scientific American.com: Study Strengthens Link between Virus and Weight Gain

Yup! Yet another reason to blame my festively plump corpus on something other than laziness and lack of self-control. Science teh rox0rs! It is almost as good as religion for blaming my problems on someone else.

Wasp performs roach-brain-surgery to make zombie slave-roaches

OK. Carl Zimmer over at The Loom on Corante talks fun things. This wasp is just downright creepy.

The wasp slips her stinger through the roach's exoskeleton and directly into its brain.

via BoingBoing.

HR 683 - the Trademark Dilution Revision Act

In which the US gov't ponders a law to make artistic expression, free speech and fair use illegal if it will result in trademark dilution. More on StockPhotographer and Public Citizen.
via Boing Boing

Dispatches from the Culture Wars

Oh yeah, yesterday, the US became even less likely to throw me in jail because there is even less chance of me crossing their border.

Fun with RFIDs and your identity.

Emergent Chaos: New Passports More Secure than Wet Paper Bags (Barely). Remember, your passport data is perfectly safe as long as you don't try to leave the country.

Remember the US Government plan to put a radio chip in your passport? The one whose security has never been seriously studied, whose justification seemed to boil down to a hope that it would speed processing, but even that was wrong? The one whose security gets worse every time anyone competent looks at it? Well, someone else just looked at it.

Fine! I'll spread your meme. But don't expect me to like it.

Actually, I won't. The Blonde joke is better. But click on the link in case you feel like indulging in a little shameless groupthink.

Schneier on Security: Another No-Fly List Victim

And this is why I do not want to ever even enter US airspace.

Concurring Opinions: Best blond joke ever?

It is unusual for Concurring Opinions (a law blog) to post humourous articles, but here they have The Best Blond Joke Ever? Although Feministe prefers

Q: What do you call a blonde who flies a plane?
A: A pilot, you fucking misogynist.

which is also pretty damned funny. Although not as funny as the one about why the feminst crossed the road.

Oda-lesque

Ahh! It's alive!

Terry McBride is so dreamy

I knew there was a reason I like Nettwerk Records besides Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, BT, Delerium, Gob, Sarah McLachlan, Trespassers William (I have no idea about their music, but I love the name) and Skinny Puppy and moev used to be on Nettwerk too. Their CEO Terry McBride is involving himself in an RIAA lawsuit down in Texas. Money quote:

Suing music fans is not the solution, it's the problem. Litigation is not 'artist development.' Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love. The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists' best interests.

WorldChanging - When green meets green.

Environmentalists believe what they believe for moral reasons. If they want others to agree and participate, they need to offer economic incentives. Luckily, these are often available.

In the credit where credit is due department (Wilson)

In which a heroine is refused credit until she offers to do a media piece on the situation after which she gets credit FedExed to her. Now this is the bad old days, as long ago as 1977. I am sure that Lucky will have something witty to say. Or maybe just a shrug and a sigh. We've still got a long way to go, baby!

Kittens & Hammers, Oh My!

A satirical view of the republican mindset. My president, right or wrong.

MPAA mulls plan to sue itself

This is rich. The MPAA made illegal copies of a movie that was submitted to them for rating. The movie is This Film Is Not Rated.

[The MPAA] justified the action by saying Dick and his crew may have violated the privacy of MPAA movie raters. That particular loophole is not mentioned on the MPAA Web site, where it states: "Manufacturing, selling, distributing or making copies of motion pictures without the consent of the copyright owners is illegal. Movie pirates are thieves, plain and simple. ... ALL forms of piracy are illegal and carry serious legal consequences."

Tank Man

I think that in the wake of all the controversy that has blown up around Google and China lately, it is always good to remember Tank Man.

In fact, controversy or not, it is always good to remember Tank Man

CBC News: Canadians 'liberal and hedonistic' but can change, U.S. right-winger says

Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation waxes philosophical:

The pessimistic view was that Harper, lacking a parliamentary majority, can do little to make Canadians 'adopt a more reasonable view of the United States' and abandon Marxist principles 'such as same-sex marriage and abortion on demand,' Weyrich says.
He does not say how these things are linked in his mind to Marxism, a doctrine better known for concepts of class warfare.

Boing Boing: Senators figure out the Broadcast Flag, curse it as an abomination!

2 US Senators, one of whom knows whereof he speaks, curse the broadcastflag as an abomination!
OK, maybe they don't although Sen. Stevens is, as I said. all over the abomination issue.

CBC - Canada Votes 2006 - Candidates and Ridings

Oh no, Ms. Bulte, I expect you to dielose your re-election campaign. Props out to Michael and Cory who brought attention to this example of reprehensible democracy.

melvin - lockpicker

A business card made of metal. A business card made of lockpicks.

New Senate Broadcast Flag Bill Would Freeze Fair Use

For your viewing pleasure, while I still can, I present an EFF article concerning yet another attempt to limit what you do with content. This latest draft legislation wants to allow "customary historic use of broadcast content by consumers to the extent such use is consistent with applicable law." How very generous of them. All that stuff you used to do? We guess you can keep doing it. All those cool new ideas? Bugger off.

Freedom to Tinker » Analog Hole Bill Would Impose a Secret Law

So the Sensenbrenner/Conyers Analog Hole bill requires almost all analog video devices to comply with 2 technologies: CGMS-A and VEIL. What are these technologies that a new law will be required in your TV and your PC? Nuh-uh, not telling.

After some discussion, the company helpfully explained that I could get the spec, if I first signed their license agreement. The agreement requires me (a) to pay them $10,000, and (b) to promise not to talk to anybody about what is in the spec. In other words, I can know the contents of the bill Congress is debating, but only if I pay $10k to a private party, and only if I promise not to tell anybody what is in the bill or engage in public debate about it.
Worse yet, this license covers only half of the technology: the VEIL decoder, which detects VEIL signals. There is no way you or I can find out about the encoder technology that puts VEIL signals into video.

Reason: Inside the Puzzle Palace: A Reason interview with NSA whistleblower Russell Tice

Julian Sanchez interviews with NSA whistleblower Russell Tice. Much is said.

It's not about child pornography people!

edit: Prof. Palfrey and I discussed this over email, and the Red Herring will correct the article to say

And certainly, protecting children from online pornography is an important public issue that we need to work together on to solve.

So Prof. Palfrey is definitely one of the good guys.

Despite what John Palfrey, a clinical law professor and executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and quite a few others reports are saying, the government's request for data to Google is to support research that they are doing to reword COPA, the Child Online Protection Act - a piece of legislation that has been ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court and that is intended to protect children from having finding/seeing pornography when they use the internet. Google Blogoscoped has a round-up of people who get the child pornography thing wrong.

Patriot Search

Are you a patriot? If so, then this is your search engine!

PS - if you are are a terrorist-lovin' commie-pinko tree-hugging treason surrender monkey, you might give Clusty (different) or Scroogle (scraped). Note that I think Daniel Brandt of Google Watch is a bit off base about Google. Apparently Google Watch Watch does too :).

The Jean-Paul Sartre Cookbook

Tuna Casserole
Ingredients: 1 large casserole dish

Place the casserole dish in a cold oven. Place a chair facing the oven and sit in it forever. Think about how hungry you are. When night falls, do not turn on the light.

While a void is expressed in this recipe, I am struck by its inapplicability to the bourgeois lifestyle. How can the eater recognize that the food denied him is a tuna casserole and not some other dish? I am becoming more and more frustated.

BBC NEWS | Education | Science 'not for normal people'

At least we are not hated.:

Teenagers value the role of science in society but feel scientists are 'brainy people not like them'

Science and innovation are the engines of prosperity. Governments that look to a more prosperous future should be working to counteract mass-media marketing to the lowest common denominator and the anti-itellectual backlash that began in the 70's. How to do this?

• Invest in education
  • especially math and basic sciences from the earliest levels
  • develop new curricula that make science more engaging and less rote memorization
  • teach memorization techniques that allow more people to retain information for those large swathes of detail that need to be memorized
  • more science and engineering scholarships and co-op programs
• Advertising
  • direct
  • co-marketing sponsorships such as tax credit for advertising or media that show science and scientists as being average and then above average in desirability (this one is tricky - it is government propaganda hidden in TV shows, not sure how I feel about that)

In which the government goes on a fishing expedition

It seems that the US Gov't, in their quest to prove that the interweb is full of pr0n and that children's delicate sensibilities are being irreparably harmed there-by, has asked for truckloads of data from major search engines. Boing Boing notes that although Google said no, Yahoo, AOL, and MSN said yes. More on the Google situation at The Mercury News.

Lately

I have been very busy working on a nutritional info web-app that my startup is making. We finalized the kiosk prototype version on Tuesday - so hopefully I will be back up to averaging at least a post a day.

DND drapes veil of secrecy over missile shield

Your tax dollars at work. Where you = {Canadjuns}.

Michael Geist - The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy in Canada

A good summary of Sarmite Bulte, political donations, and copyright policy during our election.

BusinessWeek - The Patent Epidemic

I like it when my peeps on Wall Street help to spread the Good Word.