It's all about control

Nothing to see here

2006-12-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

Move along, move along

it’s all about control

2006-03-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath A Blog

2006-03-20T23:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Web site sues Google over drop in rank

2006-03-20T15:26:00.000-05:00

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

2006-03-15T20:06:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-25T15:48:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-25T15:39:00.000-05:00

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"

2006-02-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-13T14:08:00.001-05:00

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

2006-02-13T14:06:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-11T00:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-11T00:36:00.000-05:00

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

Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons

2006-02-11T00:28:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-11T00:12:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-07T13:36:00.001-05:00

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

2006-02-03T13:46:00.000-05:00

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

2006-02-03T13:42:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-31T00:38:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-01-30T23:48:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-01-29T00:10:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-29T00:04:00.000-05:00

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

Concurring Opinions: Best blond joke ever?

2006-01-28T23:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-28T22:17:00.000-05:00

Ahh! It's alive!

Terry McBride is so dreamy

2006-01-28T22:15:00.000-05:00

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.

2006-01-28T20:27:00.000-05:00

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)

2006-01-28T20:12:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-01-28T20:00:00.000-05:00

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

MPAA mulls plan to sue itself

2006-01-28T17:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-28T17:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-28T15:45:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-01-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-24T01:10:00.000-05:00

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

melvin - lockpicker

2006-01-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

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

New Senate Broadcast Flag Bill Would Freeze Fair Use

2006-01-23T17:49:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-23T17:04:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-22T01:13:00.000-05:00

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

It's not about child pornography people!

2006-01-21T23:35:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-21T23:23:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-21T23:12:00.000-05:00

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'

2006-01-21T13:45:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-20T15:22:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-20T15:03:00.000-05:00

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

2006-01-09T12:55:00.000-05:00

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

Michael Geist - The Sad Reality of Copyright Policy in Canada

2006-01-08T19:12:00.000-05:00

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

BusinessWeek - The Patent Epidemic

2006-01-04T00:41:00.000-05:00

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

The Globe and Mail: Ottawa can eavesdrop on Canadians under law

2005-12-20T10:53:00.000-05:00

Without a court order or warrant and with little to no oversight. Huh. Bastards. Why do the media is this country act like lapdogs? Why did I only hear about this after a similar disclosure was made in the US about a secret presidential directive? This is a Law for God's sake. Pathetic.

CBC News: Suspected CIA flight landed at Gander: report

2005-12-20T00:32:00.000-05:00

Now this is something that Jim Harris (if he were allowed to attend) or Layton could make good mileage out of, if the debates weren't so crippling boring.

Portable stereo's creator got his due, eventually - Americas - International Herald Tribune

2005-12-19T23:10:00.000-05:00

I did not know this.

The Chronic-What-cles of Narnia

2005-12-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

The stories are good, the video is amusing, but more importantly, it appears that there are now stores that can provide large quantities of freshly baked cupcakes!

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah!

2005-12-19T21:39:00.000-05:00

That is all. Personally, I get more amusement out of saying "Christmahanzakwanukkah" but hey, I'm in a givin' kind of mood. Oh, and if you feel like watching a commercial, here you go. I have a vague recollection of seeing a different one that I liked more. I'll see if I can scare it up.

While you wait, I give you a Lion Documentary

Doonesbury on ID

2005-12-19T20:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's Doonesbury give an excellent kick in the nards to anti-evolutionists.

$12,000 bill forgiven, Rogers will come to tea

2005-12-19T20:18:00.000-05:00

The Globe and Mail is reporting on the story of a woman who's cell phone was stolen and whose next bill was more than $12,000. Her provider, Rogers, refused to do anything about the calls and started adding interest charges and other late fees. Money quote:

Ms. Drummond and Mr. Gefen also learned that Rogers has fraud-detection software that automatically alerts them to dramatic changes in calling patterns, but often "lets the meter run" instead of protecting customers by shutting down phones that have been misappropriated, as Ms. Drummond's was.
Mr. Gefen, a technology journalist, uncovered those secrets by attending a fraud forum in Toronto last September, where he tape-recorded a conversation with Cindy Hopper, a Rogers security official who was apparently unaware that she was speaking with an aggrieved customer.

Long story short, charges removed from bill, CEO will go and have tea with couple.
These are the batards that bought my cell company. How annoying.

Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell cleans out his desk

2005-12-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

Dancing in the streets! Major kudos to Brad.

MEPs vote for mandatory data retention | The Register

2005-12-18T14:30:00.000-05:00

This directive was pushed through in 3 months from start-to-finish of the process. It is a draconian, expensive, pointless, over-reaching, deeply-flawed, and sure to be abused piece of legislation. The blame can be laid squarely at Tony Blair's feet. Read 'em and weep.

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying

2005-12-18T14:25:00.000-05:00

Bush grabbing power is no surprise. The money quote:

The Times said it held off on publishing its story about the NSA program for a year after administration officials said its disclosure would harm national security.

County says electronic voting machines can be hacked

2005-12-18T14:18:00.000-05:00

Them votes can be all hacked up? That don't make no nevermind to me.

Sancho criticized the Florida Secretary of State's Office, which approves the voting systems used in the state, for not catching the alleged problems.
A spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office said any faults Sancho found were between him and Diebold.
'If Ion Sancho has security concerns with his system, he needs to discuss them with Diebold,' spokeswoman Jenny Nash said.

Congress Introduces "Don't Buy American" Law. China, Japan Applaud New Measure

2005-12-17T19:52:00.000-05:00

Well, according to Public Knowledge, they atually introduced a law to try and close the analog hole, but I say potato, they say "Merry Chrismas! We're Turning Off Your Analog Outs"

A Proposal to American Labor

2005-12-11T02:12:00.000-05:00

A good idea that might help combat the decline in organized labour: "During these periods another union formation was also widespread: 'minority' or 'members only' unions, which offered representation to workers without a demonstrated pro-union majority at their worksite."

CBC News: British police may face prosecution in Brazilian man's killing

2005-12-11T02:10:00.000-05:00

Just thought you should know that there is a small chance that those responsible for a tragic mistake will be held to account.

IFC Original Documentary by Kirby Dick 'This Film is Not Yet Rated'

2005-12-10T18:20:00.000-05:00

MPAA not fond of documentary film about it's rating system, rates documentary NC-17: "An NC-17 rating generally limits a film's avenues of exhibition: many theater chains will not show it, media outlets will not run its advertisements and video store chains will not stock it."

'It's just a goddamned piece of paper'

2005-12-10T17:38:00.000-05:00

The trust rating on the source is not high, nor are any of the sources attributed, but it does make for a good sound bite. It seems that Bush doesn't think much of the constitution. Proof yet again that he and I hold diametrically opposed views - their constitution is probably the thing that I most admire about them.

personalworldmap.org

2005-12-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Just a cool flash app that maps the world in terms of travel time and dollars instead of or as well as geographical distance.

France's proposed copyright reforms are more draconian than the DMCA

2005-12-10T16:31:00.000-05:00

When the FSF and the BSA both agree that a copyright law sucks, you know that there is something wrong.

Online Rights Canada

2005-12-10T14:27:00.000-05:00

donate

planespotting!

2005-12-10T14:22:00.000-05:00

Via IP.
The Guardian is reporting on how plane spotting hobbyists are invloved in exposing the CIA extraordinary rendition/secret prisons/torture gulag system. Further delving into the mysterious world of plane spotting brought up the story of the 12 British and 2 Dutch plane spotters arrested in Greece in 2001. Which brought me to this infuriating article vigourously defending the Greek authorities. The tone of the article to me is a typical example of those who believe that national security trumps all other rights and beliefs. Which, obviously, is not a view to which I subscribe. Distilled to a sound-bite, my thoughts on this matter would be If you have passed a PATRIOT ACT, then you have already lost. And make no mistake - there is an ongoing culture war here; it has been ongoing since the first authoritarian figure acted to insure that his genes stood a better chance of propagating by obtaining complete control over his environment, including his fellow cave men. It is hard to imagine a day when the struggle will be over.

The Practical Nomad blog: Appeals Court hearing on airline ID requirement

2005-12-09T00:41:00.000-05:00

vote for a bill, get an unrelated one free. GOP Immigration Bill Includes National ID Language

2005-12-09T00:22:00.000-05:00

Riders and amendments to bills that have little or nothing to do with the original law are always amusing. As Gene Spafford pointed out on the IP list, the money quote comes at the end:

“Even setting aside concerns of intentional ‘blacklisting’ of innocent Americans, even a small error rate could mean millions of Americans forced out of work by computer mistakes,” said Liberty Coalition Policy Director James Plummer. “Homeland Security has a poor record of putting innocent Americans on secretive “no-fly” lists, and should not be entrusted with determining who is allowed is to make a living in this country.”

bitchcakes.

2005-12-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

Ah Neil, look at what you've started. Thank the merciful deity, things could be much worse.

Ohio Republicans not too fond of that whole "democracy" thing

2005-12-06T19:35:00.000-05:00

Following on from a wave of gerrymandering, your friends in the Ohio Republican party have set about removing any need for non-republicans to think of voting in the fair state of Ohio. An injunction was granted and upheld against a recent law in Georgia that was going to require a specific $50 piece of ID because both a federal judge and an appeals court judge thought it likely that the law would be ruled unconstitutional so that may help as a precedent to overturn the Ohio piece, but reading the article, it seems that any challenge will have to be flexible enough to argue against the fact that they aren't asking for a specific piece of ID that costs money to get. Not an insurmountable hurdle, but nevertheless one that will require some thought.

Anyway, go go fighting ACLUans!

Weebls Stuff - Magical Trevor

2005-12-04T01:53:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me that I have been remiss in not providing you with a permanent searchable link to Weebls Stuff - Magical Trevor.

Beans, lots of beans, lots of beans, yeah yeah.

Illinois gaming law struck down, provides glimpse of FEPA future?

2005-12-03T23:43:00.000-05:00

From the Ars Technica article, reading from the judgement, the money quote:

As Justice Kennedy stated for the Court in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002), “[t]he government may not prohibit speech because it increases the chance an unlawful act will be committed ‘at some indefinite future time.’” Id. at 253 (quoting Hess v. Indiana, 414 U.S. 105, 108 (1973) (per curiam)). Rather, under Brandenburg, the State may regulate protected expression based on the belief that it will cause violence only if the expression is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and is likely to incite or produce such action. Brandenburg, 395 U.S. at 447; see also, Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. at 253.

CBC Canada Votes 2006 :: Vote By Issue Quiz

2005-12-03T22:36:00.000-05:00

My man Jes point out this online quiz to see how your thinking aligns with the criminals in Ottawa.

Best Rejected Advertising Volume Three

2005-12-03T22:07:00.000-05:00

Some of the best ads you've never seen.

MoJo Blog: Abused, Neglected, and Now Used for Testing?

2005-12-03T19:12:00.000-05:00

Ummm, wha?:

If the IRB determines that the capability of some or all of the children is so limited that they cannot reasonably be consulted, the assent of the children is not a necessary condition for proceeding with the research.

CBC News: Iraq bars non-Iraqi Arabs from the country

2005-12-03T19:09:00.000-05:00

There are two interesting tid-bits in this article. The first:

It's believed most enter illegally through Iraq's thinly-guarded desert borders.

and the second:

An Associated Press correspondent of Egyptian nationality was also barred from boarding a plane Friday for Baghdad. Iraqi officials say there will be no exceptions to the new rule.

The two taken together with this comment

An Interior Ministry official said it was "part of security procedures" reportedly implemented Nov. 29, with no formal announcement. No date for lifting the restriction has been set.

shows that they aren't serious about security and they are serious about reducing the chances of a free and fair election. I wonder if the Bush-Wants-To-Bomb-Al-Jazeera memo prompted any of this. Probably not, but it does make for a lovely paranoid fantasy doesn't it.

French Government Lobbied to Ban Free Software

2005-12-03T19:03:00.000-05:00

I believe the title says it all. Article here.

Bad Reporter: Kansas votes 4-1 to allow intelligent design

2005-12-03T17:25:00.000-05:00

Included are details of how they will change the lyrics to their famous song Dust In The Wind. I like this comic, I must pay closer attention to it. I wonder if there is an RSS feed. There is, at least, an archive.

Lawyers, Guns and Money: John Derbyshire: One Hell of a Creepy Guy

2005-12-03T13:43:00.000-05:00

Luckily, I am not this creepy. The good thing is that quite often these days prospective mates are googling each other. Stuff like that should have helped to insure he stayed out of the gene pool, but apparently we are too late. I do find the poses his wife makes in the photographs intstructional. I wonder what someone trained in the field of relationships would make of the fact that they are never holding hands, in fact she is most often seen clutching her own. As a wild stab in the dark I would say mail-order bride or arranged marriage. Poor woman.

Will Ferrell: Earth to America

2005-12-02T02:22:00.000-05:00

On the issue of the so-called global warmings.

Googlemaps

2005-12-02T02:01:00.000-05:00

ad. Funny. Oh, and here is one for the X-Box 360

World's 10 Tallest Buildings - SkyscraperPage.com

2005-12-02T01:35:00.000-05:00

No politics, no IP, just height.
World's 10 Tallest Buildings - SkyscraperPage.com

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Potential Taste Receptor for Fat Identified

2005-12-02T01:34:00.000-05:00

So all I need to do is cut off my tongue? Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Potential Taste Receptor for Fat Identified

Shyamalan: Day-and-date 'life or death to me'

2005-12-02T01:33:00.000-05:00

Oh well, I guess M. Night can kill himslef.

Patent Baristas: USPTO Issues Double-Patenting Rejection on Genentech's 29-Year Patent

2005-12-02T01:30:00.000-05:00

Patent Baristas: USPTO Issues Double-Patenting Rejection on Genentech's 29-Year Patent

Here is some background on the patent.

Mindless Link Propagation

2005-12-02T01:24:00.000-05:00

Several things have recently caught my eye:
Copyfight: the politics of IP USC/Berkeley Report: over 30% of DMCA take-down notices are improper.
Bruce Schneier on Security: Australian Minister's Sensible Comments on Airline Security Sparks Outcry
More on habeus corpus Balkinization: Padilla and Hamdi
Boing Boing: Anti-game lawyer loses right to practice law in Alabama - all together now, "poor Jack Thompson!"
MercuryNews.com | 11/29/2005 | Supreme Court to hear eBay patent case plea
Cracking safes with thermal imaging
Well, they have asked. Think Progress » Bush Said He Would Withdraw U.S. Forces If The Iraqis Asked
Another one from Bruce Schneier on attempts by EU media corps to use anti-terrorism data retention to mine for IP infringement (which they want to make a criminal offence)
The Washington Post reports on US domestic military surveillance.
And finally, a little levity. Perhaps Case 3 (Wendy) could use Panexa^™ to help her get over her accident.

Macleans.ca | Canada | You are exposed

2005-12-02T01:19:00.000-05:00

Ooops. Turns out it is really easy to get other people's phone records. Even when that other person is the privacy commissioner of Canada.

SBC: ain't no way VoIP uses mah pipes!

2005-12-02T01:18:00.000-05:00

A couple more links on the original net neutrality comment. On Ars Technica and Dave Farber's IP List

Executive Wants to Charge for Web Speed, Shoot Self In Foot

2005-12-02T00:51:00.000-05:00

Do you remember last month when the CEO of ~~SBC~~ AT&T was showing his bulging manhood to anyone who would look? Well it seems that one of his lackies is continuing to test these waters and word on the street is Executive Wants to Charge for Web Speed. The money quote for me is:

his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

Which is just asking for trouble. I can see Larry and Eric and Sergey sitting around the table, reviewing ~~AT&T~~ Satan's latest proposal:

Larry: "Says here that they think we should pay them 10 cents for every page."
Eric: "Interesting. I wonder what sort of results we should return ..."
Sergey: "First 10 links for your search for AT&Rape? AT&Nazi-abortion-paedophilia?"

ISPs are so cute when they think that we care who provides our bandwidth.

As an aside, I thought this quote from the article was interesting:

Legislating otherwise "would be the same thing as saying to Google, 'I think we ought to have regulation on Google that says when I enter a search term, the top search result is always a random event,' " Smith said, claiming that Google allows clients to pay to influence the ranking of search results. In fact, Google does not allow payments to influence general search results, although advertisers pay for top billing on the lists that run on the right side of Google's pages.

I don't remember seeing the memo about journalists having some backbone and actually pointing out lies, do you?

This, I believe...

2005-12-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

(Just in case - my views are my own, and don’t blame Chris (or anyone else) for them, please).

Thank you Mr. Penn Jillette , for this near perfect elucidation of my own views on the subject of God (and religion, and All That Sort Of Thing), from his NPR “This I believe” contribution.

Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Live action Aslan is "blasphemy"

2005-11-29T18:07:00.000-05:00

OK, OK, sure it is against the express wishes of the author, but we are talking some serious Hollywood coin here.

Education and Copyright - Some Canadian Confusion

2005-11-22T01:49:00.000-05:00

Compare as we dare, milk with aero. The Canadian Heritage Report of 2004 is still doing damage. From the WIPO report:

Many options are available to us at this time. Some content is online and there is no expectation for payment for its use. How can we take this into account? The following was suggested: If a technical protection measure is not imposed to lock users out of the content, then the education sector should be able to use such content. We would like for the education sector to assume that things on the Internet can be used freely unless it explicitly states that they are not. There are two schools of thought on this.

Emphasis added. The two schools of thought seem to be:

Education is important.
I am a corporate whore and think that unless a teacher has a copy of an explicit license for them to use some internet content with a specific group of students at a specific place on a specific date then they should assume that the content is protected and unusable even if the front page of the website says "Welcome all students and teachers to our free awesome learning tool. The. Best. Evar."

To which I, of course respond

Yay.
Where is my gun?

Bill C-74, the Modernization of Investigative Techniques Act,

2005-11-22T01:40:00.000-05:00

[Update - I don't know why they are bothering with all of the hoopla and law-making when your privacy is for sale on teh interweb]

Otherwise known as the surveillance bill.

As you may have suspected, Michael Geist has a thing or two to say. As you may imagine my feelings on this are:

They cannot provide me with a rigourous analysis proving the need because they do not have one, instead they have a police and RCMP shopping list.
Our neighbours to the south are suffering from this and it has gained them nothing except an ongoing epidemic of invasion of privacy and expenses

The CBC report does nothing to address concerns and merely parrots the government line: "waah, the Americans, British, and Australians are doing it, why can't we?" The AP report uses the term "eavesdropping bill" which is less than flattering.

I expect to hear more about this in the days and weeks to come, right up to the point where an election is called and the bill dies a quiet death.

Boing Boing: Microsoft: Trusted Computing sucks!

2005-11-22T01:38:00.000-05:00

In which Microsoft are full of it, part the 8,003rd

Light Field Photography with a Hand-Held Plenoptic Camera

2005-11-22T01:28:00.000-05:00

So I am browsing /. and I come across a post linking to a Wired article about a Stanford research project - and I check out the research paper website and download some of the example movies and think to myself holy shit, that's really fucking cool! Honestly, the exclamation mark was there and all.
Here is what is happening:

Traditionally, light rays filter through a camera's lens and converge at one point on film or a digital sensor, then the camera summarizes incoming light without capturing much information about where it came from. Ng's camera pits about 90,000 micro lenses between the main lens and sensor. The mini lenses measure all the rays of incoming light and their directions of origin. The software later adds up the rays, according to how the picture is being refocused.

The result is that you can, after the fact, alter the plane of focus throughout the entire possible range using software.

For any Shadowrun GMs who may happen to be reading this - it was this kind of thing that I had in mind with my surveillance field in the forest outside the Proteus AG base - many small lenses > one big one.

New Scientist Breaking News - GM pea causes allergic damage in mice

2005-11-21T22:23:00.000-05:00

Finally! Some actual hard proof that we need to be cautious about GM crops. In this case, a protein that has been transplanted from a been into a GM pea causes allergic damage in mice. I have no particular sympathy for luddite-all-GM-is-bad-m'kay types but at the same time the cavalier-trust-us-we-are-scientists-working-for-international-agri-business attitude on the other side is just as irritating.

One of the interesting things about this particular experiment is that the source species and the target are both legumes - probably as similar to each other as we are to other primates.

< ducks head as botanists throw bricks in response to wild stabbing guess />

Boing Boing: Barenaked Ladies release album on USB stick

2005-11-20T12:20:00.000-05:00

Take that! Mr. Sony.

Habeas Corpus

2005-11-14T23:51:00.000-05:00

Read the links here for a review on an attempt by neocon senate lapdogs to roll back the Magna Carta. Some ex-grunts disagree with the idea.

The principle of habeas corpus (lit. have the body) is generally concerned with the right of a prisoner to appear before a court.

I cannot see how any law that intends to apply a suspension of habeas corpus only to "Enemy Combatants" can get around US Const. Amendment 14, § 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Note that the emphasised section says "person", not "citizen."

Perhaps there are judicial precedents ruling that secretly the amenders only meant "people we like."

Bill of Rights - Security Edition

2005-11-14T17:16:00.000-05:00

What a brilliant idea! The first 10 amendments to the US constitution (otherwise known as the Bill of Rights) engraved on a metal plate - so you have to surreneder it to the examiner when you go through a security checkpoint. Sweet, sweet, irony.

The Panda's Thumb: An Experimental Test of ID? Really?

2005-11-12T19:10:00.000-05:00

An entry at The Panda's Thumb rebuts Michael Behe's proposed falsifiability test for ID. During the Dover trial, he testified that

In fact, intelligent design is open to direct experimental rebuttal. Here is a thought experiment that makes the point clear. In Darwin’s Black Box, I claimed that the bacterial flagellum was irreducibly complex and so required deliberate intelligent design. The flip side of this claim is that the flagellum can’t be produced by natural selection acting on random mutation, or any other unintelligent process.
To falsify such a claim, a scientist could go into the laboratory, place a bacterial species lacking a flagellum under some selective pressure, for mobility, say, grow it for 10,000 generations, and see if a flagellum, or any equally complex system, was produced. If that happened, my claims would be neatly disproven.

This, of course, is untrue. Since the purported designer is unknown not necessarily knowable neither of the two outcomes "prove" anything.

If the bacteria develop flagella then by their own claims it proves that it must have been designed
If the bacteria to not develop flagella then we can assume that the designer chose not to create them

The important point to remember when talking about Intelligent Design as a science is that the Designer acts at their own whim and can not be forced into acting, either through experiment or in the world at large.

The shocking use of police stun guns

2005-11-12T18:36:00.000-05:00

"To serve and protect." The innocent have nothing to fear. Perhaps that is why the Taser corporation is thinking of adding cameras to their guns.

From the subscription protected portion of the article, a selection of tools to look forward to:

Less-lethal weapons in development include microwave beams, acoustic blasts and knockout drugs, but there is no independent, peer-reviewed research on their health effects.
The Pentagon has designed the microwave and acoustic weapons, which it plans to use to disperse crowds. The Area Denial System shines a broad microwave beam into a crowd, painfully heating people's skin and making them flee (New Scientist, 23 July, p 26). But calculations by physicist Jurgen Altmann at the University of Dortmund in Germany suggest the system will have a beam width of up to 5 metres. "In an invisible beam that wide, which way will you flee?" he asks. A Pentagon source says it has researched the health effects, but its results are classified.
The Long Range Acoustic Device is an ear-jarring noise generator. It produces a highly directional sound beam far more intense than the loudest noise permitted by US workplace safety laws. At 1 metre from the device, the intensity can be 151 decibels. "This is enough to produce ear pain and endanger hearing," Altmann told the conference.
Knockout drug pellets, delivered by weapons not unlike a paintball gun, are also on the way. Anaesthetist Jitka Schreiberova of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, is experimenting with different mixtures of surgical anaesthetics to make a fast-acting immobiliser. Based on benzodiazepines, ketamine and alpha-2 agonists - substances that activate alpha-2 receptors within the central nervous system, causing sedation - Schreiberova says she has so far immobilised macaque monkeys and human volunteers in 2 to 4 minutes.
"Some people might say this also contravenes the Chemical Weapons Treaty," says Andrew Mazzara of the Institute for Non-Lethal Defense Technologies at Penn State University.